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More Project Updates
A few days ago I made a post about the BANS software. While I haven’t made any significant revenue yet from the sites, I haven’t given up. However, I have shifted my focus in regards to affiliate marketing. I’m not going to give out too many details just yet, but I’m working more with leads rather than sales, and SEO rather than PPC. A few days ago I spent three hours writing 20+ articles for this project. I’ve just started building everything on a solid website; I’ll post an update once more progress has made.
As for my other new project, AdminAddict.Com, I’m waiting on the design to be finished by the designer. I would guess it will be done within a week.
Another project I’ve had in the works for a while is focused around Fox’s new show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I was fortunate enough to get the domain name www.sarahconnorchronicles.org; because the domain name is very search engine friendly, and because I started posting on the site months ago, the site is ranked in the top 5 for most terms related for the show in most search engines. The result is a massive amount of traffic (for me, anyway) coming overnight. I was already having problems with the new VPS, and the new traffic did not help whatsoever.
Traffic aside, I did have some problems monetizing the site. I tried various sale and referral campaigns with commission junction, but had no luck. Amazon ads had been running for the previous month with only a few sales. With the boom in traffic, I switched ad sense. Sunday and Monday I made a decent amount, but had a very low CTR. I made some changes and it improved. I’ll keep experimenting. I’ve added TV episode listings of the recent episodes on Amazon and iTunes for purchase, so we’ll see if they’ll convert.
Sorry for not posting for a week or so; I’ve been busy. 
Goals for 2008
2008 is just around the corner, and with it brings new opportunities. Up until the past few weeks I’ve been very unmotivated in my web endeavors, but that will change in 2008. I’m going to college in next fall, hopefully to NYU or Northeastern. Both charge outrageously high tuition, so if that’s not a good motivator I don’t know what is. I intend to pay for the bulk of my college tuition through website revenue.
Some of my goals that aren’t related to specific websites:
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Spend an average of 5 hours a day working online.
Currently, I may or may not be doing this. I’m not sure. I hope to better keep track of my productive hours working online. This may be difficult between schoolwork and my job, but I think I can do it if I remain focused. While I’m easily spending this much time online and then some, I’m not sure all of the time is productive. I need to be more productive in what I do.
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Keep Records
One of my major flaws right now is I don’t keep track of what I do. Recently I’ve started a daily to do list, which has helped. Starting January 1st, I will keep track of 1) Revenues earned, both gross and net, 2) Hours worked, tasks completed, 3) tasks/jobs to complete, 4) short and longterm goals. I think keeping track of these things will help me stay focused. Moreover, I hope to occasionally post in this blog about the progress I’m making; hopefully some readers can keep me accountable.
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Establish a net income of $2000/month by December 2008
I don’t expect to be able to accomplish this right away, but it’s my goal to reach by the end of the year. On average, that’s a little less than $65/day. It’ll be hard, but it is doable. I’m not sure what I’m making currently because I haven’t kept track, but it’s around $6-$7/day. So, in one year, I need to multiply my earnings by 10. Ideally I’ll make between $200 - $400/month on 4-5 sites plus additional revenue through affiliate marketing and miscellaneous income sources.
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Save 100% of the revenue earned for college
As I mentioned above, I’m heading off to college next year. I haven’t been accepted to either of my first two choices yet, New York University and Northeastern University, but I really hope I do. Tuition is around 40K, plus about 10K room & board. That adds up to about $50,000/year. Not cheap for a Midwestern kid from a lower-middle class family with four children. Yikes. No more splurging on new laptop(s), new gadgets, or other unnecessary things. Any earnings I make online will either be reinvested in my sites through new designs, features, and advertising, or will be saved for college. This is something I’m going to be cracking down on this year. If I can manage to make $2000/month, my first goal, that should pay for about 1/2 of my college tuition for each year (if I can keep the earnings consistent).
A Look at the Future
- Real Mad Hatter
This site, my webmaster and personal blog, is still new. However, I think that within a year I could reasonably pull in $250 a month or more through private ad sales. In the next three months I hope to revamp this design and get a custom logo/character for the blog. My RSS subscriber goal for the end of 2008 is 500 readers. I also hope to consistently post 4-5 times a week with productive, intelligent posts.
- Writing Forums
Thus far, WritingForums.Org has been my greatest success. In the next few months I plan to upgrade it to vbulletin 3.7, install a custom review/critique modification, establish more writing contests, and much, much more. I have big plans for the site. It’s currently bringing in just over $100/month. My goal for 2008 is to increase this to $350/month. Currently stats: 6,833 threads; 118,942 posts; 2,665 members. By January 1st, 2009, I intend to have 300,000 posts and 5,000 members. Ideally I would like 500,000 posts and 10,000 members by the end of next year, but I think that may be setting myself up for failure. It’s good to be ambitious, but bad to be unrealistic.
- Admin Addict
This is my newest project. I have high hopes for it. Since I’m still developing it I can’t tell you much about it, but the general idea is that it’s a resource and forum site for forum administrators. Tyler, my partner in this endeavor, and I are currently developing this project. This forum is more for fun and to help other forum administrators, but I don’t think it’d be too hard to image us pulling in $400/month from the site within a year. I intend to have at least 2,500 members and 100,000 posts by the end of next year. For the blog on the main site I hope to have 500 subscribers, as well as many [currently secret] features.
- Daily Movie Reviews
This site is another new one from me. The goal is to provide one new review of a movie I’ve seen every day. This will mostly include newly released movies, but may include others as well. In addition to a movie review each day, I intend to post about additional movie and tv news, sneak peeks, and inside information. I still need to change some settings and create a custom header for the site, but this should be done soon. Most of the revenue here will be from affiliate sales, but also private advertisers and adsense. My goal for this site is $400/month and 250 subscribers.
I have many other goals as well. While I wouldn’t consider this a new year’s resolution, per se, I think it’s important to make goals to accomplish throughout the year. What are your goals for 2008?