It was one month ago on May 1st that I started Murlu.com. I’ve been putting a lot of hard work toward the blog and making money online with my personal projects.
I wanted to let everyone get a monthly glimpse into how I spend my time to build Murlu and work on other projects. This isn’t meant to come across as arrogant, I just figured you may be interested to see the ‘behind-the-scenese’ here at Murlu.
Murlu: May In Review
For over a year I had been putting off creating this blog; I have no idea why I didn’t start it earlier – I want to kick myself in the butt for not doing so.
Although I work full time for a fantastic tech company, I still have been putting nearly 5 – 7 hours into the blog and projects each day.
Some people say blogging is easy; I wish I could meet these people and give em a glaring look. Time aside, I’ve absolutely loved how open the community has been thus far – I’ve met so many great people and hope it turns into a long term blogging relationship.
I’ve learned a lot about this blogging niche since starting. Some of my direction has been curbed from how I originally thought I’d be going. I now find it easier than ever to write and it’s all thanks to this wonderful blogging community which keeps me inspired.
Here is a screenshot of my analytics for Murlu.com:
I also seem to have built over 13,500+ links:
Earnings For May 2010
I’m certainly not using this section for boasting about what I do or how much I earn. I’m a very modest person that enjoys working online and earning extra money to spend more time with my friends and family.
Here is a breakdown of my main income sources online:
Selling On Amazon: $267.89
In May I began my quest to live a minimal life. This meant I began selling everything that wasn’t nailed to the floor – quite literally. I gathered up all the items I no longer want or needed and listed them on Amazon.
Amazon was by far the best bang for my buck however it won’t be as consistent as the others. However, I do have a few business ideas and products I’ve been sourcing to list online.
I want to be transparent with you. The main things I sold on Amazon were old comics, books and movies I’ve found at flea markets, old electronic equipment and (surprisingly) key chains.
Google Adsense: $26.02
Adsense picked up this month as one of my blogs has now been seeing a steady 400+ visitors a day. It has also has seen a few $2.00+ clicks on certain niche websites.
Amazon Associates: $25.22 + ~$10 Unpaid
Amazon has also been very nice to me month after month. On my other blog I write reviews of products and include the link. There are a few pending orders which should be rolling through as part of May so this revenue will be going up.
ArticleMe: $30.45
ArticleMe has also been very good to me with quite a few additional articles being sold. I plan to write more in depth articles to begin pricing them at a higher rate – I hope it goes over well.
Total: $359.58
I’m very happy with this amount as it allowed me to spend 2 whole weekends out with my friends, covering all expenses and still leaving me some money left over for bills.
Personal Life
I’ve always hated that we never get to look into the personal life of a blogger. I know many most likely won’t care so much but I’d still like to give you a glimpse into my own life.
May has been quite wonderful for me (I hope it was for you as well!) mainly in part of starting the blog, visiting friends, attending festivals and spending quality time with my girlfriend.
I’m a big time Electronic Music junkie and frequently go out to clubs and festivals. I love the music and people. It gives me a chance to hang out with friends and go offline for a few nights each month – which I think is increasingly important in our constantly connected world.
I also spent a lot of time with my girlfriend. She has been my muse; she’s extremely intelligent and highly driven. She helps me develop my projects and is always there to lend support when need be.
Finally, I highly suggest you all go out and try something new. Don’t get caught up in work every day of the week; set aside time just for yourself, clear your head and stay away from the computer!
Plans For June 2010
I have big plans for June, the most important being a new series of ’30 day challenges’ and the ongoing ‘How To Start A Profitable Blog Series’.
I’ve always enjoyed the idea of a ’30 day challenge’ and pondered for hours what I could focus on.
I’ve decided in June I will test how far I can push my freelance writing. Be sure to check out the challenge beginning soon; if you participate you will begin earning money online.
Another item (well, a few) I’ve been working on is a slew of free ebooks covering a wide range of topics I talk about on Murlu. I have a few of them half completed but still have difficulty trying to think of which to release first.
Finally, I plan to write quite a few guest posts so be sure to check in on Twitter and the RSS to see where they’re being posted.
There’s Much More To Come
Thanks to everyone that has stopped by the blog, commented and given me support and inspiration to keep going. Here’s hoping we can all earn a little more online in June.
Talk to you soon,
Murray Lunn
Awesome stats man.
I think those are some pretty darn good stats for murlu.com
!!
Everywhere i saw your comments (long…. quality) You have just done awesome work.
Thanks for sharing this awesome stats
. Great work. Keep it up.
.-= Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..How to be an Effective Blogger? =-.
To be true, you are going in great way. Nobody can know that its just 1 month old.
I too spend about 8 hours on my little blog
.-= Shekhar Sahu´s last blog ..CoolHotmail-Choose 100+ Unique Email IDs Which Depict Your Personality =-.
Really nice stats of income, I think you need to hide google adsense “CTR” and “eCPM” details because, it violates google adsense policy
You said that you’re making money with amazon and google adsense but I haven’t seen any ads relating to those in your blog, Then how you are able to make money with those? do have other than this murlu.com site?
.-= Arun´s last blog ..Nokia launched dual sim handset with affordable price =-.
@Arun
Thanks for pointing that out Arun, don’t want to get in trouble with the Big G hehe.
With amazon, it’s a combination. I do have minisites, blogs and articles on the web which use associates – I will be writing about these subjects in the near future; I hope to have it so everyone will be able to set up their own ‘properties’ online to bring in some extra income.
The other Amazon earnings comes from selling online through them – which I’d also like to write about how to find products, pricing and other aspects of selling on Amazon.
Perhaps I should have clarified about the earnings report is the whole of my online activities. Murlu is a bit of my personal blog but mostly related to talking about how others can begin doing the same. In due time I want to make it possible for everyone to jump right into doing these things
That is a great income report. Thanks for sharing as it always helps me to push even more to make money online.
.-= Vivek Krishnan´s last blog ..5 Ways To Reinvest Your Blogging Income =-.
@Vivek – I’m glad you enjoyed it. I don’t want it to come across as something others will be envious or to show an arrogant side of me; I want to show that it is possible with hard work – you can do it!
God stats murla .Only one month old blog get huge income.I inspired with your effort .Thanks for sharing your real stats.all the best.I want tooooooooo also.
.-= jai prakash´s last blog ..Google ssl encrypted search makes privacy for webmasters =-.
Regarding “30 day challenges”. Ed Dale is running his annual free challenge, only this time it’s over 3 months. It’s worth signing up as it costs nothing and he provides a lot of expensive tools free. eg last year he provided Market Samurai free.
Here’s the link if you are interested:
http://www.challenge.co/blog/
Click on the forum on the top right side and register.
.-= Teatree´s last blog ..Backlinking with Ezine Articles =-.
Thanks! I recently just got an email about it; should be interesting to check out.
Nice earnings
The Google Adsense $2.00 clicks are really nice.
Davin @ My Gamer Diary´s last [type] ..Coming Soon