1st Quarter Earnings and Future Directions

I have grossed many many multiples of 5 figures so far this year. If I did the math it would probably be 5,000% more than I made last year.

Mostly from leveraging stuff I wrote years ago into income.

And it's not reproducible or sustainable long term, so it's more a windfall.

A very nice one. Which is nice since my adsense tanked with Google's latest update (so much for niche content doing better, I guess mine qualified as spam, which it isn't, not even close, but okay).

Which leads me to write this: I love passive revenue. I love building passive income. I made $500 from eHow in March alone (for a gross of more than $1500 for 3 months).

What I don't love is how Google can jack you up any time they feel like it. Without even really telling you. Or providing a bonafide opportunity for appeal.

The latest algo update destroyed the current passive revenue paradigm. Utterly demolished it and the industry has been very slow to retool and rebuild. So slow, I've given up on waiting for them.

I also dislike how you are vulnerable to poor management or drastic management changes. For instance, Suite101 is in the toilet and they may get flushed. eHow closed their program rather abruptly last year. You just have so little control.

Passive revenue is just not income you can rely on. It's rather high maintenance too, what with Google changing the game every 3 to 6 months and then the platforms themselves changing almost daily it seems.

The people selling niche blogging and passive revenue as easy peasy money, go live your life on the beach? Are lying. You gotta pay attention in this business. Be ready to hit the curve balls out of the park over and over again. The paradigm is not stable. It's ever shifting and sometimes you get swallowed up. More than once.

So I am thinking to go in a new direction.

Actually make that, directions, plural.

One, ebooks are going to be the next hot thing. I'm calling it right now. Niche blogs are so two thousand and late. So I am working on several projects in that vein. This also fulfills my desire to get out of the web content article format and delve into my areas of expertise the way I want, how I want.

I have my first ebook up as a test run and I'm learning all sorts of things I didn't know and always always always finding yet one more typo I missed. I think they breed when I'm not looking! I consider the first project a throwaway, my learning curve ebook. So I don't expect much.

Another ebook is with a professional editor getting a nice polish.

Having worked in revenue share for the last 3 years, I know the trend is always toward better quality. I aim to produce high quality ebooks from the start. Some form of sweeps will occur once there's too much junk content clogging the pipeline. There are so many people online trying to make a buck, there will be a filter of some kind at some point.

Two, a longer term goal is creating an actual product that will create a new paradigm for fashion. That sounds pretentious, but that's the best way I can describe it. It's a whole other learning curve. Once I get the ebooks moving, this will get my attention next.

Wish me luck.

September Earnings Roughly the Same

I'm holding steady at $350-$400.

Have not been able to do much to push to the next level--my health is just not cooperating.

But I have registered a new domain. I have written a few articles and hubs. I do keep plugging away, but at the speed of dead snail.

I am niche blogging and web content writing in s-l-o-w motion. Ha.

October is looking dismal. I think I've made all of $2 on Amazon so far this month which is very low.

Earnings for July 2010 & Making eHow Work For Me (For Once!)

Before I forget...

-eHow: $300 and change. Up about $100 from the last month. Nice.

-Amazon: Still less than $50

-Adsense: More than $20 but not by much. Most of this is Infobarrel, particularly one article that seems to be doing well.

-Suite: Roughly $20 for the month, but actual income was more like $40 since they paid me for accrued earnings from previous months as well.

-Online used book sales: This is a new thing I've been experimenting with. Not sure I'll stick with it, but I did make $200 in used book sales.

My laptop is dying--it was a lemon from day one, the power jack has had constant problems. Replaced it once, it's dying again. New laptop comes in next week! Thank goodness!

So, quickly because my battery is dying and I can't get the power cord to work at the moment...

I am pruning my backlinks today. I even went into my eHow stuff and added links to new articles. So long as I hit the save button, the article doesn't run back through the plagiarism filter. eHow is not an 'official' back link, but it does drive traffic and a lot of my eHow articles get great traffic.

Just thought I would mention that in case any one is trying to get some traffic to new articles since the eHow WCP closed.

Cheers!

Catching Up

Wow, I haven't posted since May! Didn't think it was that long!

Quick earnings update:

May
eHow: $260
Adsense:$20
Suite: $0
Amazon: Less than $50

June
eHow:$200
Adsense:$20
Suite: $0
Amazon: Less than $50 but up $10 over May

So that's that for earnings. I've been pretty bummed about passive income because it seems like eHow killed the entire concept when they changed the WCP program. Niche blogging continues to be the slowest horse in the race for me.

Suite is slowly taking off and is showing the most potential right now, in my opinion. I am also very slowly adding content, so it's partly my fault that I'm not earning more. (My health is better, but I still struggle and have just now regained my strength. Since colds and flu make me super ill, I'm not likely to stay healthy for long. My baby starts preschool this Fall and you know preschool is just code for 'germ factory.' Sigh.)

But I sometimes feel as if the internet changed when eHow changed. The opportunities aren't there like they used to be. Is this the bad economy finally hitting the internet? Will things perk up next year? I don't know.

I was scanning various writing message boards and forums and I don't see anyone crowing about making a ton of money at any one site. There's not a lot of positive chatter about niche blogging either, although maybe people are keeping quiet to cut down on competition--I don't know. From what I see, people seem to be cobbling together income from multiple freelance sources.

I thought it was telling when the Keyword Academy dropped their fees from $66 to $33. People can't or aren't willing to pay $66 in this economy.

I also don't see all the people with e-books on eHow pushing their product. I thought at least someone would rewrite their book for the 'new eHow' because a lot of the info still applies. Just retool a few chapters, cover Demand Studios and you have a saleable product again.

But nope, don't see that happening either.

It's weird. Hopefully this is a lull and sites like Infobarrel will rise to fill the eHow gap.

How's it been for you, since the ehowpocalypse?