Now that I finally have a month with no travel plans, I’ve decided to make the most of it by declaring a one month low information diet.  When I first started learning about making money online, there seemed to be an endless supply of knowledge I couldn’t absorb fast enough.  I remember creating my plan to rely on Infobarrel so heavily because the idea of ranking a website without the help of a higher authority platform seemed impossible.  I would take little nuggets of good information away from every blog post, forum thread, eBook, and eCourse I read. 

Now however, I’m beginning to notice patterns in each new eBook claiming a “secret” formula to ranking websites #1 on Google, creating well converting affiliate squeeze pages, and getting traffic to your blog.  The secret is almost always the same:

To rank a site #1

• Optimize On-site by including your keywords in the URL, title, meta tags, first sentence, last sentence,  header tags, and image titles (and a few others).
• Optimize Off-site by creating hundreds if not thousands of backlinks by setting up forum profiles, blog comments, article directories, and Web 2.0 properties. (The higher the PR the better)
• Buy a few thousand links from a service for $20-50 dollars and see which ones stick.
• Investigate your competitor’s backlinks and get as many as you can of theirs.

To create a well converting squeeze page

• Keep the copy clean and simple
• Include an email opt in with a free bonus, build a list
• Include testimonials
• Test and Tweak, repeat

To get traffic to your blog

• Write consistently
• Write quality content
• Make thoughtful comments on other blogs
• Write as many guest posts as possible
• Build an email list from the start, provide fresh content in the newsletter

Sure everyone has a small twist on the procedure, but the foundation is still the same.  Right now, my performance online has been mediocre.  I have 4 websites ranking on the 2nd or 3rd page of Google, and my blog traffic has not grown substantially since my first month online.  The reason for this is twofold.  First, I am constantly reading “new” information which inspires me to start a new project, or a new angle on a project.  This is fine, but what I have finally realized is there are literally thousands of ways to make money online.  And everyone of them can be as lucrative as the next.  However, if I don’t completely follow through with each project, I won’t know which methods are working and which aren’t.  Secondly, I am wasting valuable time reading new methods online when I should be working on the old ones.  Up until this point that was fine because I truly was “researching” the best way to get results online.  Now I know the method, I just have to put it into practice.

I will focus my efforts 100% on furthering my online empire by creating content for backlinks, articles, and blog posts.  How this change will affect my day to day will be subtle.  I don’t have a problem procrastinating or being distracted during working day hours.  My problem is usually putting too much effort into starting new projects rather than putting in the work on the backend of my old projects (I say old, but they are mostly less than two months old). 

The more dramatic change will be working more at night rather than browsing my blogroll and forums.  To keep this change simple, I am going to implement a simple division of work tasks.  During the day, I will focus extensively on writing new articles and blog posts.  At night, rather than stay up until midnight reading forum threads, I will create backlinks to my work from previous days.  Simple as that.

Luckily for me, this change isn’t coming after months of procrastination or poor earnings.  I am very happy with the results I’ve had so far, and this “low information diet” is a precautionary step towards productivity to make sure I keep increasing those earnings month over month.

For anyone who would like to join me and make April your best month yet, leave a comment to pledge your decision.

I not exactly very proud of my third month building my Internet Empire. The plan was to have 100 hours of driving time to Las Vegas having nothing better to do but write articles and build websites.  The reality was that the ride was so bumpy that I literally could not write (or read for that matter) a single word on my computer.  I got back from Vegas around the 10th and then went to Florida to visit family. 

Instead of spending my free time catching up, I opted to take the opportunity to study the material needed to pass the CDL (commercial drivers license) exam.  I’ve always wanted to get my CDL and for some reason driving cross-country inspired me to finally take the leap.  I passed all of the exams on my first try and I’m proud to say I have my permit.  (I’ll take my road test sometime in May).  I was back in New york sometime around the 22nd and still had nothing new to show for my empire.

Meanwhile, I had been planning to visit Detroit since the beginning of the month to look into investing in a business with a friend who lives there.  As it worked out, he was available on the 28th.  Which meant, I had 6 days to catch up on all of the household chores, pay bills, and do what I could to further my empire.  I decided that since I had already left my Infobarrel untouched for 3 weeks, I would let it finish out the month to see where my earnings were at with the new Google algorithm change.  I instead worked on my two niche sites I started in February, adding a few articles to each, creating custom headers and logos, and building a few backlinks.

My main project however was working on a new niche site to promote a Clickbank product according to the steps outlined by the SEORecipe over on the Warrior Forum.  I researched the products, purchased the domain, created the logo, advertisements, and wrote the articles according to the “recipe” word for word.  The author claims that the results should be apparent in 3-4 weeks, so I should have an update next month.

With the new niche site, I now have one site heavily promoting AdSense, one Amazon, one Clickbank, and one CJ/Linkshare.  And the good news is that the CJ/Linkshare site was my very first niche site is now officially out of the sandbox! It took almost exactly three months of not touching it at all to get out, but it is now primed and ready to be a #1 spot contender.  It was sandboxed after receiving only 8 backlinks, so hopefully now it can handle quite a few more (it will need a few hundred to rank).  Additionally, I think I will switch the advertisements over to AdSense as I think it will convert better for that site.  It’s been receiving about 100 uniques a month from being in the #1 spot of Bing and hasn’t made a single cent.

The good news is that April and May are looking pretty open to focus 90% of my time on my Internet empire.  The only obligation I have this month is a two week class on becoming a horse drawn cab driver in Central Park.  More on this later.

Now for the stats: 

Guest Posts:
No guest posts written.

Guest Post Goal: 1
Guest Posts Written: 0

Niche Sites:
I created my new Clickbank niche site, and updated my other sites which are now ranking on the 2nd and 3rd page of Google.  Lots of promoting these sites should bump me up to the 1st page this month or next.  Since the change in the Google algorithm, I have decided to put more emphasis on my niche sites over Infobarrel, although I have not given up writing articles.
Niche Sites Goal: 2
Niche Sites Created: 1

Mystery Product Research:
No progress.  A June launch is looking bleak.  I still want to pursue the idea, so I will keep you updated on my plan here.

Infobarrel Writing:
After realizing I wasn’t going to be able to contribute to IB much at all in March, I decided to use it as a little experiment to see how my earnings would bounce back after a drastic decrease at the beginning of the month.  I am happy to say my AdSense earnings increased over 60% despite all of the drama, and I will continue to write regularly, although not 3 articles a day.  I will start with 2 per day and focus more on my niche sites which seem to have more potential than any other platform.

Articles Goal: 90
Articles Written: 0
Total Articles: 162

Blog Posts:
I didn’t write a single blog post in March except for my update, and Infobarrel Rankings.  Epic fail.  This will change big time in April.  Plus I’m going to write a new eBook for my newsletter sign up since my old one is a little short.  I still managed to get 10 extra subscribers this month.

Blog Posts Goal: 8
Blog Posts Written: 0

Subscribers Goal: 100
Current Subscribers: 10
Total Subscribers: 34

I was still happy with my earnings this month despite my lack of attention.  Last month I made made 20 sales on Amazon with a conversion rate of 11%.  Oddly this month I had even more clicks than last month (288) but my conversion was pathetic at 1.39%.  I’m not sure what changed except that I’m not the Amazon genius I thought I was.   AdSense continued to rise in both views and clicks ending the month 60% over last.  92 clicks with a CTR of 3.09%. 

Infobarrel:
Adsense: $41.97
Chickita:  $3.82
Amazon:  $3.80
Affiliate Links: $0.00

Niche Sites:
Adsense:  $0.00
Affiliate Links: $0.00

Blog:
Affiliate Links:  $0.00

TOTAL: $49.59 (-14.01)

I am still very happy with these results.  The only thing I don’t understand is the drop in Amazon sales.  I get that I was lucky with a 11% conversion last month, but with an increase in clicks I hoped for at least a 3% conversion rate.  We’ll see how next month fares.  Additionally, I am really hoping my Clickbank niche site takes off this month.  I’ve followed the plan exactly for someone who claims it has worked on 57 other sites the same way.  If it works, I hope to see earnings over $100 next month.  Regardless I should qualify for my first AdSense check next month.

February was crazy for a number of reasons.  The month started out with the release of Infobarrel 2.0.  After it’s release, everyone noticed and immediate drop off of views and earnings due to a piece of code left in the site that basically told Google to stop indexing everybody’s articles.  The administration fixed the issue and within a week or so, articles were re-crawled, and traffic went back to normal.  Looking back there was really very little harm done except a few days of lost earnings, but at the time a lot of writers (myself included) were fearful all of our work was lost. 

If we only knew what was about to happen just a few short weeks after traffic started to build back up on our articles.  Around the 23rd of February Google released what is being called the “Farmer Update” targeted at content farms which churn out low quality and unhelpful websites.  Although Google claims it’s intention is to help eliminate low quality web pages from the top search engine rankings, it has had a major impact on all revenue sharing platforms across the board (ironically excluding eHow).  I personally saw what little traffic I had drop by 42%.

Before Farmer Update:

At the time of this writing, there is no clear answer as to whether revenue sharing sites are considered “content farms” or if our articles will start to be re-indexed as Google weeds out the truly low quality websites.  I’m still earning more than a dollar per day since the changes, but there is no saying if this is going to increase at the rate I was planning on.

 

Guest Posts:
My goal was to write 3 guests posts to make up for my lapse in January.  Unfortunately guest posts were not a huge priority and I didn’t get any out.  I did write one with a specific blog in mind.  At the very minimum I need to submit that in the month of March.
Guest Post Goal: 3
Guest Posts Written: 0

Niche Sites:
In an effort not to completely fail this month, I did manage to get my two niche sites launched.  They only have one article each and no SEO work whatsoever (they still have “Just another WordPress blog” tag line).   However, they are still indexed, and one is actually ranking on the top of the 3rd page of Google.  One thing that people are noticing with the new Google algorithm change is that decent quality niche sites are actually climbing through the rankings.

I have not made an official change in my plan just yet, but my priorities are certainly shifting from using any spare time I have on the road to write articles to focusing more on this blog and my niche sites.  My hope this week is to get 10 articles on each niche site and work on making them look good.  One is more heavily focused on amazon sales, the other on the Adsense platform.
Niche Sites Goal: 2
Niche Sites Created: 2

Mystery Product Research:
I again failed in this department and did nothing to further my goals here.  I do finally have a plan, however, to starting doing my research for this project while providing some value to this blog at the same time, so look for that in the near future.

Infobarrel Writing:
With moving and working nearly full time, nothing online took priority, not to mention it was a short month.  I fell behind around the middle of the month and with all of the Google changes, there was very little encouragement to come home and write 3 articles after working a 12 hour day.  I did however manage write at least 1 or 2 articles most days which put me at a respectable 62 articles for the month.  I secretly wanted to make the 100 mark again, but I am seriously re-examining my plan to make sure that is the best use of my time.  I should have a good portion of March left when I get back from Vegas, and by then we should have a clearer idea if article writing is still as lucrative as it once was.
Articles Goal: 90
Articles Written: 62
Total Articles: 162

Blog Posts:
I failed big time consistently writing for this blog in February.  Not surprisingly, I gained almost no new subscribers, and saw no increase in traffic.  I have made a few major changes in my life last month, so I have plans for a couple epic blog posts this month.  I have a feeling with the Farmer Update I will be focusing a lot more on blog posts in the future.  After seeing my progress at Infobarrel take such a quick dive, I have learned early that depending on Google for my earnings is not a sustainable long term income strategy.  Focusing on the blog will take longer to monetize and have a higher risk of failing, but it is much more likely to succeed over the long term.  Also my plan to start researching my mystery product includes sharing some of the information as I progress on the blog which was not in the plans. 

Blog Posts Goal: 8
Blog Posts Written: 2

Subscribers Goal: 200
Current Subscribers: 22

Despite an epic fail on my part, earnings were actually through the roof.  My only concern is that the rate of growth I saw will not continue which is why I may need to alter my plan in the next week or so.  I made 20 sales on Amazon with a conversion rate of 11%, and had 68 Adsense clicks with a CTR of 2.76%.  It’s a shame the Google changes have the possibility of affecting my earnings so dramatically because I was obviously doing something right.  Hopefully it is just a bump in the road and things will return back to normal soon. 

Infobarrel:
Adsense: $25.45
Chickita:  $2.00
Amazon:  $33.15
Affiliate Links: $0.00

Niche Sites:
Adsense:  $0.00
Affiliate Links: $0.00

Blog:
Affiliate Links:  $3.00

TOTAL:  $63.60

I couldn’t be happier with my earnings this month.  My goal for February was $30.00 and I more than doubled it.  Clearly I’m at least on the right track and hopefully this will continue to be the case as I move forward.

My goals for March 2011 are:

• Write 2 guests post to blogs with over 5000 subscribers.
• Write 1 article per day for Infobarrel. (Until the dust settles)
• Add 10 articles to each of my niche sites, optimize them, and make graphics.
• Start 1 Amazon Niche Store and 1 AdSense Niche Site.
• Generate $75.00 of income.
• Reach 100 subscribers.

_____________________________________________
Other Happenings: 

Lauren and I signed a lease on an apartment in Manhattan this month (more on this to come).  It was an outrageous deal and we just couldn’t pass it up.  It doesn’t mean much will be changing except for the fact that there is less pressure to make things happen faster than our 12 month lease.  I am still technically focusing on my online efforts full time, but I couldn’t pass up these couple of jobs in Miami and Vegas due to a) its really good money b) it’s friggin Miami and Las Vegas!

Since my post last month about minimalism being a bunch of crap, I’ve had just about one month to commit to selling everything we own.  Lauren and I agreed that it was time for a huge ‘sell-o-rama’ for a couple of reasons:

• We have to be out of our apartment by the 28th of February and moving sucks.
• We are experimenting with adopting a minimalist lifestyle.  So when the time comes, we can start traveling with little preparation needed.

So far the results have been spectacular.  I would estimate I have sold 70-80% of our possessions, with about another 10% still listed on Craigslist.  All we really have left are our clothes, laptops, kitchenware (plates, silverware etc), and the bedroom set.

We are still waiting to hear from Tiffany’s about whether Lauren is getting hired full time (they still have her scheduled as seasonal until March 26th) before we decide if we are moving into Manhattan or going back to Florida.  If she gets hired, then we will be moving into a studio apartment in Manhattan.  With rents for a 1 bedroom costing as much as $3000 a month, a studio is all we are able to afford.  So, if we move into the studio, downsizing was inevitable (although not nearly to the extent I’ve taken it).  If she doesn’t get the job, then we will be heading back to Florida to regroup and plan our travels.  If Florida is our destination, I’d like to avoid the entire cost and hassle of packing everything, renting a truck, driving 1200 miles etc.  So the plan is to sell everything that doesn’t fit onto a pallet and ship everything to Florida, while we fly back.  (We sent the car back to Florida around Christmas 2010, and have been living happily without it for about a month and a half.)

In order to sell everything as quickly as I have, it has taken a tremendous amount of dedication and planning.  It helps that I am not working full time, but a lot of the time I should be writing posts and guest posts has been spent taking pictures, uploading files, listing items, and meeting with buyers.  I’ve made a spreadsheet with every listing I’ve had on Craigslist to track what’s been sold and for how much. So far, we’ve sold $4,280.00 worth of stuff on Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon. I’m planning on making a detailed write up with exactly how I was so successful on each platform, and how to use each of them to their fullest potential sometime this week.

A good portion of that $4,280.00 can be attributed to a couple large sales, like my ATV which sold for $1500, and the TV and surround sound which sold for $530.  However pretty much $2000 dollars of that sum was nickel and dimed with $5-25 dollar crap that we never needed.  (Who needs three ice cream scoopers, or a quesadilla maker?

The one category of item that simply will not sell? Clothing.  Lauren has released over 150 pieces of clothing for me to sell, many of which still have tags.  I’ve listed the items individually, grouped by brand, offered as one big lot for less than a dollar per item, and nothing.  Not a single call, maybe two emails (possibly from spammers).  Lesson:  Clothing is worth ZERO DOLLARS the minute you walk out of the store with it, so think carefully about the purchases you make.  And its not like I don’t write good copy, or my ads are poor quality.  I have had literally 5 or 6 comments about how great my Craigslist ads are.  Who else can say they’ve received multiple comments on how well their ads are put together?

It has actually been pretty easy adjusting to an almost empty apartment.  I still have a pile of stuff I’m trying to sell but the tables are gone, decorations are sold, electronics vanished, and the biggest adjustment- the TV was sold.  I’ve always wanted to experiment with not having a television. Although it’s not too extreme since we still have Hulu Plus on our computers, it has taken some adjustment not to stare at the blank wall when you sit on the couch (soon to be floor).  We’ve still got some work to do.  The kitchen still needs some minimizing.  We’re down to just the pots and pans we use everyday, but we still have 35 forks, and 36 different bowls and plates.

Lauren and I agreed to consolidate all of the irreplaceable decorations, and probably the of the extra kitchen stuff into a box to send down to her parents house.   We are getting very close to getting our things down only to the essential items.

On an somewhat related note, our contract ended with AT&T (we’ve had iPhone 3Gs for two years now), so we switched over to a family plan with Lauren’s parents on Verizon.  We were extremely temped to get the iPhone 4s, but instead opted to get some cheap phones off Craigslist to stay out of contract and cut our old bill in half.  Needless to say, we are now living without a car, without a TV, and without our iPhones…It almost seems Un-American.

I finished up my first month building my Internet empire just in time for the new Infobarrel site to go up.  It’s been a long month, especially considering the 5 day project I agreed to work on with my old company has turned into 3 weeks so far.  As a result, I’ve spent less time on my empire than I’d hoped, but I still managed to turn out 3 articles everyday with a few extras each weekend so I could break the 100 articles barrier in my first month.  In addition, as I mentioned in my article about minimalism being a bunch of crap, I’ve been posting Craigslist ads like crazy over the past few weeks as Lauren and I have been trying to downsize. (I have over 90 craigslist listings up right now) So, with working during the day and meeting Craigslist buyers at night, the only priority I’ve really been able to make is writing articles.  All of my other monthly goals panned out like this:

Guest Posts:
My goal was to do two guest posts to help drive some traffic to the blog, but I was only able to do one over at www.tacticalcashflow.com.  It’s a shame, because I can already see I have had a relatively big boost in traffic from that post, so I can see writing guest posts must be a priority next month.
Guest Post Goal: 2
Guest Posts Written: 1

Niche Sites:
I was not planning on creating any niche sites this month, so no room for failure here.  I am looking into different options next month, perhaps making 1 amazon store and 1 Adsense niche site to help me learn and understand the benefits of each one.

Mystery Product Research:
I failed miserably in this department.  It was put on the back burner last month because it is not the number one priority right now.  If I want to keep pursuing a full time income online, I need results.  Article marketing is simply the fastest (albeit still very slow and laborious) way to get adequate results so that I can keep working for myself.  Additionally, If I had to, I could make the prototype of my mystery product in a month or two. My priorities right now are: Write 3 articles per day, start promoting articles, write guest posts, start niche sites, research mystery product.

Infobarrel Writing:
I made this area a priority and I exceeded my expectations.  I wrote 100 articles in my first month, learned a thing or two about better keyword research, and even made a little money.  Following in the footsteps of other IB writers I know I can produce $500-1000 easily in six months if I keep up this rate of writing, so I need to keep Infobarrel a priority.  In addition, my plan for promoting these articles is to re-write them all (by hand) and start setting up two other revenue sharing platforms.  This will not only allow my to link between all three, but also potentially double or triple my earning potential by just adding about an hour extra work to each article.
Articles Goal: 90
Articles Written: 100

Blog Posts:
Posts on MikeForShort sort of fell behind, although there are a couple bigger posts I’m proud of.  I also spent a lot of time on the Infobarrel Rankings Page which was a huge success and generated some decent traffic.  I will do better in February since fresh content is expected from guest post traffic.  I’ve got some great blog post ideas coming up this month that I’m really excited about.  I really need to focus on this blog, because the success of my mystery product hinges on getting the word out here.  I have considered the option of finding a larger blogger to partner with if my traffic is not substantial enough to launch the mystery product, but I would obviously rather succeed in both ways.
Blog Posts Goal: 8
Blog Posts Written: 6

Subscribers Goal: 100
Current Subscribers: 20

Infobarrel:
Adsense: $9.93
Chickita:  $0.95
Amazon:  $1.26
Affiliate Links: $0.00

Niche Sites:
Adsense:  $0.00
Affiliate Links: $0.00

Blog:
Affiliate Links:  $0.00

TOTAL:  $12.14

Overall I’m very happy with this report.  I made more than I expected I would in my first month, and I know exactly what areas I need to improve on next month.  I do need to prioritize though, because I am still working this week with my old company and I leave for Miami for a big event on February 19th-28th.  I’ve got a lot ahead of me, but I’m ready for it.

My goals for February 2011 are:

• Write 3 guests post to blogs with over 5000 subscribers.
• Write 3 articles per day for Infobarrel.
• Rewrite the 100 articles I already have (twice).
• Start 1 Amazon Niche Store and 1 AdSense Niche Site.
• Generate $30.00 of income.
• Reach 100 subscribers.

_____________________________________________
Other Happenings:

I am actually starting to feel the effects of writing so much.  Although I’m getting pretty good at cranking out articles, the last week of January I had a hard time getting started everyday.  Once I start writing, I am able to get into the rhythm of it pretty quick, but the first few sentences take forever to get out.  There were also some very disappointing days with 60-70 views on my articles with no clicks.  I am happy with my January earnings but if there weren’t people like AJ blazing the trail, I would be at least tempted to throw in the towel on days like that.  I’m not going to give up though until I’ve given it a solid 6 months to see what I can do for myself.