Introduction

To start off this month’s update on online income and traffic, I want to explain why I do this.  If you’re new to the blog, you might wonder why I’m talking about blogging on a blog about financial topics.  Well, my view is that creating secondary income sources is the most impactful thing you can do for your finances.  Furthermore, creating online income is probably the easiest and lowest risk opportunity for you to create another income stream.  This report is my monthly update on this journey.

As you can tell if you continue reading, I’m now bringing in over $1,000 $1,500 in extra income every single month because of my blog.  This is my goal, and my continuing goal is to increase this monthly income as I move forward.  The end goal is to achieve full-time income replacement through online sources.  This would lead to a completely different lifestyle for myself and for most of you I would assume.  If you’re interested in starting a similar journey, I have plenty of information here on this blog to help you launch.  To start, check out the information on the Online Income page.

Let’s get to the numbers for July 2010…

Traffic & Readership

I like to break my traffic down into three categories: visits, page views and eye ball time. Since page views per visit can depend on a look and feel and how a blog is organized, the eye ball time is probably the most accurate number when comparing blog to blog. Let’s look at each…

Total Visits

October 2009: 6,387 visits
November 2009: 6,996 visits
December 2009: 7,735 visits
January 2010: 12,354 visits
February 2010: 11,947 visits
March 2010: 13,208 visits
April 2010: 11,943 visits
May 2010: 12,050 visits
June 2010: 12,065 visits
July 2010: 17,118 visits

Search Traffic

October 2009: 3,570 visits
November 2009: 4,075 visits
December 2009: 3,954 visits
January 2010: 5,922 visits
February 2010: 5,533 visits
March 2010: 6,710 visits
April 2010: 5,991 visits
May 2010: 5,035 visits
June 2010: 4,547 visits
July 2010: 6,808 visits

Direct Traffic

October 2009: 1,245 visits
November 2009: 1,230 visits
December 2009: 1,738 visits
January 2010: 2,370 visits
February 2010: 2,035 visits
March 2010: 2,425 visits
April 2010: 2,319 visits
May 2010: 2,575 visits
June 2010: 2,819 visits
July 2010: 3,835 visits

Referral Traffic

October 2009: 1,572 visits
November 2009: 1,691 visits
December 2009: 2,043 visits
January 2010: 4,060 visits
February 2010: 4,378 visits
March 2010: 4,071 visits
April 2010: 3,633 visits
May 2010: 4,440 visits
June 2010: 4,698 visits
July 2010: 6,464 visits

Big move up in traffic in July.  An increase of over 40% in terms of total visits.  This is the “next leg up” that I’ve been working towards.  Now, the attention turns to maintaining this new level of traffic and then building for the next leg up.  The pattern seems to be shoot up, plateau for a few months, then another shot upwards, followed by another plateau – We’ll see if this continues.

Page Views

October 2009: 19,155 total page views
November 2009: 20,500 total page views
December 2009: 23,418 total page views
January 2010: 36,023 total page views
February 2010: 33,725 total page views
March 2010: 36,776 total page views
April 2010: 32,670 total page views
May 2010: 33,035 total page views
June 2010: 39,208 total page views
July 2010: 61,120 total page views

Eye Ball Time

October 2009: 1:44 per visit = 664,248 total seconds = 184.51 hours
November 2009: 1:57 per visit = 818,532 total seconds = 227.37 hours
December 2009: 1:48 per visit = 835,380 total seconds = 232.05 hours
January 2010: 1:49 per visit = 1,346,586 total seconds = 374.05 hours
February 2010: 1:43 per visit = 1,230,541 total seconds = 341.82 hours
March 2010: 1:34 per visit = 1,241,552 total seconds = 344.88 hours
April 2010: 1:45 per visit = 1,254,015 total seconds = 348.34 hours
May 2010: 1:25 per visit = 1,024,250 total seconds = 284.51 hours
June 2010: 2:04 per visit = 1,496,060 total seconds = 415.57 hours
July 2010: 1:48 per visit = 1,848,744 total seconds = 513.54 hours

Google Analytics is the source of all traffic data

Blog Income

As I mentioned above, I dropped Adsense from 20smoney.com near the middle of the month of June.  This means that the following Adsense numbers no longer really apply, but I do have a few “niche” sites that bring in some Adsense revenue. So, this month’s Adsense revenue reflects a couple weeks of 20smoney.com ads plus other sites that I have.

Adsense Revenue

October 2009: $38.60
November 2009: $75.40
December 2009: $59.28
January 2010: $171.79
February 2010: $68.39
March 2010: $121.28
April 2010: $149.40
May 2010: $158.68
June 2010: $84.51 – From here on, Adsense no longer the focus
July 2010: $115.56 – All Adsense revenue driven from other sites (not 20smoney)

Other Advertising Revenue

November 2009: $285.00
December 2009: $90.00
January 2010: $90.00
February 2010: $290.00
March 2010: $435.00
April 2010: $910.00
May 2010: $1,148.75
June 2010: $1,350.75
July 2010: $1,680.00

Online income continues to move higher.  It’s amazing how when you cross a certain threshold, it seems to gather momentum and continue increasing.  I’m now targeting the $2,000 monthly income level.

Overall Thoughts

I’m very encouraged by the continued growth here at this blog.  I’m also seeing some traction in some of my other websites – if these continue to grow, I may start breaking out the income by website in the future.  For now, it’s just Adsense income as shown above.

Additionally, I’m making some excellent contacts and building relationships with other bloggers that is enabling me to get the word out more regarding my site and bring in new visitors and traffic.  Building the relationships with other bloggers is a very much overlooked aspect of this journey.  It can be a big help as you move forward towards your goals – read the additional opportunities section at the bottom to work with me on various things if interested.

2010 Goals Progress

We are officially seven months through 2010.

• Alexa ranking under 120,000 by the end of 2010 – Don’t care about Alexa rankings since they’re incredibly inaccurate gauges of traffic
• Google Pagerank of 5 by the end of 2010 – Done
• 25,000 visits a month by the end of 2010 – I’m starting to think that this is possible with my current jump in traffic – if we hit 25,000 visits a month, we should be well over $2,000 in monthly income and maybe more.
• Averaging over $100 per month in Google Adsense income by the end of 2010 – Done
  
• Averaging over $400 per month in total blog income by the end of 2010 – Done
  
• 1500 RSS subscribers by the end of 2010 – Growing slowly.  Probably won’t hit 1500 – I’m content with 1000-1200 at year end.

Additional Opportunities

If this traffic and income report inspires you to get started, I want to be a part of it.  There are many benefits to partnering with bloggers – especially bloggers with established blogs that have consistent traffic and are earning money.  I have a few other sites that I’m looking to ramp up and would like to partner with you and your up-and-coming blog.  If you might be interested, contact me.