July was an insane month for me. Not only did I travel to Toronto, Canada but had quite a few sales, pushed myself with writing but also wrapped up a web design project for my friends’ business.
Murlu: July in Review
I had fairly large plans for July but there were many things that popped up that hampered my overall earnings. I tried out a few new things with my other blogs and websites which did show a rise in affiliate commissions and adsense earnings.
I’m going to completely own up to it and say that I could have put more effort into it.
There were a few things that really came together nicely:
- Wrote nearly 200 articles
- Wrote additional guest posts
- Solidified a few big project ideas
- Finished the website for my friends bakery
Overall, July was pretty great. Although the heat here in Florida is literally annihilating my productivity (we had a heat index of 114 on one day!) I still go quite a bit done.
So, without further delay I want to show some stats.
Compared to June:
- +4 visitors
- -682 page views
- -1:03 time on site
Overall, the traffic was the same but because I was out for a week and busy with other plans it didn’t give people much to read and stick around the blog. Still, I think these are pretty decent numbers.
While we’re on the subject, I would highly recommend subscribing to the RSS here so you can keep up to date with every new post.
Earnings for July 2010
July was mostly about passive income. I actually had a couple large sales but due to timing I wasn’t able to get the out the door and had to cancel the sales – this would have been nearly an extra $200 in income. Oh well.
As for everything else, let’s take a look:
Amazon Associates: $62.35
Amazon Associates always does fairly well but July saw an almost doubling of my normal profits. One thing which I believe has really effected it was a few reviews on my other blog and a new image which pointed over with my affiliate link.
I wish it went through but there were 3 more sales which weren’t processed in time. They were big items (around $200 – $300) which would have added on nearly another $30 to the total – oh well, that will show up in the next report.
Google Adsense: $29.41
Adsense was pretty rockin and already August is starting off on a great foot ($6.14 on the 2nd). I didn’t do anything differently except for removing a block or two which has helped increase the CTR. As always, I’m going to experiment with it to find the best combination.
Selling on Amazon: $20.98
I only sold two items on Amazon (still have 2 pending) but overall it was fairly boring as I had mentioned that I had to cancel a few orders. Not gonna bother with a screenshot on this one.
Total: $112.74
I’m not swinging the numbers that you see all over the web but I still think it’s something worth celebrating. Hey, I’m a regular person just like you that’s blogging and making a bit of side money. The sky’s the limit and I hope even this amount shows you how it is possible.
Plans for August
August is going to be a month of new beginnings. I’ve just turned 23 and have decided to use it as a launching point for bigger and better things.
On the web
Throughout August I will be stepping up my freelance writing and plan to write nearly 150 articles between now and the beginning of September.
It’s going to be difficult and exhausting but I believe it will be a great start!
The top 3 things I want to do on the web this month are:
- Write at least 1 article a day for Helium
- Launch a new eCommerce store
- Ramp up guest posting
I have other projects I work on as well besides Murlu which I will be investing more time into but for now I’m going to focus on trying to get more into passive income through my writing.
By the way, if you would like to join me during this 30 day testing period of Helium, contact me and leave your first and last name plus your email. I would love to have others that are also on board and we could also help one another develop ideas and promote each others articles!
I’m going to be very busy on the web during August testing out new things. I may also invest in a few video series related to traffic and blogging – a small price to pay if they work out – I’ll be sure to update everyone as it goes along.
In the real world
I’ve never been huge on personal development. Not that I don’t want to better myself, I just always found it odd that you’d listen to others on how to live life. However, since reading and listening to a lot of great speeches (and wanting to be a better boyfriend) I’ve decided I want to change up some things:
- Start a diet and excercise plan
- Wake up earlier, remove the clutter and focus on what makes me happy
- Look for colleges (I want to learn programming)
As you can see, it’s not doesn’t seem like much but these are going to be life changing. I want to really make an effort to get rid of a lot of the stuff I have and focus on what truly makes me happy.
I also want to shed some weight and be more active – not just in front of the computer.
Finally, I love programming and although I can learn a lot of it online I really enjoy the academic environment so I’ll be looking around for colleges.
My Trip to Toronto
As some of you have heard (through Twitter) I visited Toronto for a week. During the time I tried my best to stay offline so I can actually enjoy my vacation without all the stress of keeping up with my work.
In short, I had an absolute blast! Although there were some hang ups due to the horrible service Delta provides I managed to get there and back in one piece.
While I was up there we went all over the city. I really took in the Canadian experience – gah, had such a good time!
I met so many interesting people, saw so many different things - every time I go up it seems like a whole new world.
How did you fare?
Anything special or exciting happen your way? Please share your experience in the comments below.
If you write income reports, please share them as well whenever they’re up – this will let us all compare notes and support one another!
That’s not bad for a beginning passive income.
Thanks Brandon,
I hope to up it in August but I know I’ll also be quite busy with some things; just need to focus!
Great Stats and income report.
You’re really doing Great. Keep up the good work.
~Dev
Thanks Dev, appreciate all the supports, retweets and inspiration!
On your previous report you had that you were using articleMe to make some money. Seem’s like a cool idea, but just wondering, to make the cash that you were making, on average how many posts do you publish to generate the sales that you get???
I omitted ArticleMe out of this one (as you can tell) because I wasn’t going at it all that hard but it varies. Some months I’ll put up 10 others may be 50. Because I’m passive with ArticleMe I’m not all that concerned into when they sell so whenever I have some free time to write I’ll throw one up there – if it sells, yay!
I recently put up quite a few but none have sold – hopefully they will in the near future but I’ll probably play around a bit on the pricing, I may have set them a little too high.
That is quite good. I managed to pull in just shy of $300 during July and I can’t wait til the end of August to see if I can beat that amount.
Fantastic Dean – I’ll have to swing by and check out the blog while I’m at it. $300 would be great – just think, that’s more than a few nights out to have fun, a car payment, cell phone and cable. Gotta love all the opportunities online
I am blogging for 63 days and I am yet to make a penny. Can someone teach me how to use our blog to earn money.
Hi Sathish,
A lot of it depends on the niche you’re going after – whether or not the community is one that is willing to click and buy items related to it. I will be talking about this further in detail down the road but for the meantime I would say continue to stick with it, write great content, promote it, throw up some ads and keep testing.
As a shout out, I would recommend also reading blogs like TechnShare, Smartbloggerz and FamousBloggers. If you have some extra time, take a look around at some of the other comments left on this and other posts by the awesome community here – there are quite a few great posts linked and worth reading!
Your income is good for new blogger. Try keep it up and make more money
Thanks Hieu – I’m still trying to find that perfect balance between work, blogging and freelancing. Everyone has to start somewhere and even with these earnings it helps keep me motivated and inspired of what’s possible!
Earning about 30$ with so less pageviews is really amazing!! Can you share your Adsense secrets with us?
Hi Rohit,
One of the main factors in the Adsense earnings is one of my niche blog of one of my hobbies (hint, hint). I will probably be talking about the website but you know how it can be once you let the rabbit out the hat – competition! I know, I know, I want to do a tell-all but I’m still building its authority and want to do a few more things before doing a full write up.
Although, there are a few other niche sites that I have that are product related. In a nutshell, I wrote helpful articles on using the product, some reviews and FAQs. The clicks are fairly high because the market is very competitive. Only problem, although it does reach many #1 spots in Google, the overall search each month isn’t all that high – it definitely paid off though, it was originally just an experiment I tried hehe.
The biggest tip I could give you would be to find a hobby or something you’re at least interested in. Buy a product or two, check out forums, see what people are asking, see if they actually buy these products and services, then write about it
Congrats for your income. I hope to share mine sooner, I should do it now
Thank you Tinh.
August should be an interesting month as far as income goes – the combination of the 1,000 articles and a few other projects should pull in some good money
Great stats there despite your vacation Murray. I’m sure you won’t lose all that much in a week towards readership though. We know you’re having a blast. Besides, it’s best to enjoy yourself and take in new data. When I was gone, I felt compelled to check my blog but I held that anticipation through being on the road and trying scheduled posts for the first time.
But wow! You have quite a load of work on you. That’s quite inspiring because I’ve only begun hopping into the article writing bit. Your endeavors with this blog is one which I keep up with so continue the great work!
Thu
Thanks a ton Thu!
The vacation was exactly what I needed and it’s great to hear your time away gave you the same experience. It seems like we’ve both came back swinging, ready to rock and fully rejuvenated.
We’re all so busy as bloggers, entrepreneurs, employees, family and friends that we forget and become so wrapped up in our projects. It’s okay to set it aside for a little time to recharge the batteries. Blank out your mind for a little bit and you’ll get a flood of great ideas when you’re ready to work again
gr8 sharing murlu..
hence u choose Helium, i still want to knw which is better, Squidoo or Helium. ?? i m making my mind to make money by starting writing like u.. Please guide..
The other thing which i want to knw is what products are you selling on Amazon.. ?
Thing which i liked most abt you is — Answer to every comment.. Marvellous !! Hats off to ur didcation !!..
Hi Rajat,
Overall, I think Squidoo and Helium both have their good points. Squidoo, overall, has a better interface and because of the higher rankings, your articles can dominate in search engines. Helium, I like because of the ease – it’s not overly technical, it has topics I really enjoy and you also get competition which makes you raise your own game.
The best, of course, would be to do a little of each. Squidoo is great cause you can place affiliate links while Helium goes directly for passive income. If you connect to two, interlinking or sharing both with the community it can have a colossal impact.
I don’t think it’s important, overall, to debate into every minute detail, more that you should just choose one and stick with it for a while. Try not to bounce back and forth because it’s like many goals, you always get really really close but if you didn’t stick through, you won’t know what it could have been.
As for Amazon, I write a lot of how-to’s, guides and such which talk about products related to the niche. I make it a point about which products have become standard within the niche and why they are the best. It helps that I even have these products so I can truly recommend them and share my own experiences with them.
Try to go after items that costs $200 – $300 because those are the items which will give you a very nice commission but won’t be out of the reach of those wanting to buy it.
Hope this helps
Good go.. bro
Cheers. hope to see one more zero or couple of zeros added in few months from now 
Thanks for the support Robin – it’s important that we’re always proud of our accomplishments, even if they’re a small amount because at the end of the day, that’s what lets us hold our head up high.
As the income and reach continues to grow, I hope it also inspires others to go after their goals
Very true bro. I was making 10$ a month.. but now its increased to 250$ per month. I never let me blogging spirit go down. This is the only genuine and best working method when it comes to online money making.
Its ofcourse hard earned money that we get finally
so i can enjoy spending each cents.
Cheers.
Thanks for your own input Robin – I find it really helpful that people get to see actual earnings, not just some over-hyped set of statistics and screenshots. For the average person, what good does it really have when you hear people say “I made 400,000 this month” – that takes years upon years (and maybe some luck) to achieve that.
As you said, the only way to start earning an income is to actually put forth the effort. Sure, there may be a some systems that work for people but we all have to get out there with what we know and turn it into profits instead of just reading the theories over and over.
I like to see some like button for each comment
is that possible to implement such feature here ?
To my knowledge, comment systems like IntenseDebate comes with comment voting although I’m currently stumped on regular plugins that would give the feature.
Thanks for the income report. Seeing others passive income reports really motivates me to work harder. One question: Why do you like helium? They apparently have a hidden revenue sharing formula and you have to stay active in order to make any money at all. Infobarrel is a MUCH better revenue sharing site (75-90%) that is monetized with adsense and amazon. You also have full control of your articles. Check out my email.
Thanks for the comment (and email) Alex.
You made me think hard about it and I may be doing a big update on the project shortly – as they say, diversify your portfolio!
I think it basically came down to this: Keep mulling around the idea, research and just spend hours upon hours of theory or actually get down to it and do it. I should have done a bit more research but so far it’s been really great to just be able to push myself – I’ll be able to use this on other websites too!
Thanks for your support and comments Alex!
Why i cant see a single google adsense ads or amazon associates in your murlu.com ? Do you have other blogs?
It is weird that my google analytics shows that i have 5434 visits last month, but my google adsense earning is low, only $1.++usd…why!!?
i think you must have a high cpm is it? my cpm never reach $0.50usd..
Indeed, most revenues are from my other blogs and websites which I’ve had running for some years now. I’m still on the fence on whether or not to monetize Murlu because I’m in conflict because I want to build branding and to avoid alienating readers. Perhaps in the future but for now I just want to make sure I give people a good read
Nice stats Friend. I am trying hard to earn money online
Thanks Vishal, it’s starting to pick up a lot on the passive side. I still do a lot of active online income but it seems to be hitting a tipping point where it’s continually rising by itself – that’s when it all gets fun.