Million Dollar PortfolioReal Strategies for Making Money Online

This year I have been reporting the income this blog makes to show you that anyone can make money online if they do what they are passionate about and persevere. Summer is here and last month I mentioned that advertising tends to slow down because of nicer weather, vacations and people just not spending as much time reading and blogging as they normally do.

My own activities had slowed during June because of a death in my family which not only left little time to blog because of having to take care of the bereavement process and all that is involved, but also because I just had no desire to talk about anything, as you can imagine.  That being said, June didn’t slow down in terms of advertising revenue, in fact it was better than May.

I’ve mentioned before that traffic is a huge component to how much money you can make. This includes RSS readership. The more RSS readers you have, the more likely it is ads are going to be seen and potentially clicked on and/or will have produced a sale for the advertiser.

Traffic Statistics

Entrecard continues to be part of my traffic, but it’s probably not generating as much revenue as I would like. The reason for this was because of some culprit sites using Entrecard as a credit building system. Entrecard caught on and has banned all of the sites they could find that were exploiting this system. Entrecard users (droppers) tend to only visit a site to generate a click for a credit and some have it down such that they can drop 300 cards a day. Not only does this defeat the purpose of the system, but some even built pages or sites with only the widget on them so they would load fast…but I digress.

Traffic is still the most important thing when trying to make a blog successful.  Unfortunately, I forgot to add the google analytics code to my index page when I changed my theme in June. Therefore I won’t be reporting google analytics traffic statistics. I have to instead refer to Webalizer from my hosting provider.

For the month of June, The Proficient Investor had 7747 total visits from 1713 unique visitors with an average of 258 visits per day. This blog had 7049 total visits from 2517 unique visitors with an average of 243 visits per day.

RSS subscribers increased from 1 to 5 for The Proficient Investor and Million Dollar Portfolio has stayed the same.

There are 2 things to take away from this information.

1. Generating traffic is the most important thing you can do for your blog.
2. Creating original, quality content is the second most important thing because you want your readers to stick around.

Total Blog Income For June 2008

Total income from all sources increased over May as RSS subscribes grew and previous advertisers signed back on with Text-Link-Ads.

Total Revenue was $55.62 from Text-Link-Ads.

Not signed up with Text-Link-Ads yet? TLA continues to be my most consistent performer. Along with providing ad space you will also get an affiliate link to post on your own blog. Anyone who signs up under that link will earn you $25 cash each and every time. Sign up now and start earning money!

I also earned $2.46 from Google Adsense bringing my total ad revenue to $58.08 for the month of June.

Summing It All Up

So what does all this tell you? First of all, traffic is still really important but so is the quality of what you write. Last month saw a drop in the number of articles, but not the quality of the articles I did end up writing.
The bottom line here though, is I am still making money online. My hosting fees are paid for and I get a little money in my pocket. You’ll notice some changes on the blog already.

I’ve installed OIOPublisher which allows you to sell ads on your own, eliminating the middle man. Does that mean I’m getting rid of Text Link Ads? Not at all. I still like the fact that someone else out there is pimping my sites and selling ad space for me, which means less work on my end. That being said, you can become an affiliate of my site!

Do you want to make money online but don’t know where to start? Read this to get an idea of what has made me successful this year.

New Affiliate Program

Can you sell ad space? Can you convince others that advertising on this site is worth it? I pay 10% on every sale you make. Click here to sign up and start selling space on my site. You can make some good money doing this. Just check my advertise page to find out the rates and calculate your potential profit. For example, a 125×125 banner ad on this blog costs an advertiser $50 a month. If you make 10% on the sale, that means $5 a month goes to you each and every month that advertiser continues to advertise.

July will be an interesting month because i have this new ad system in place and traditionally, advertising slows down in the summer months. I’ll update you all in August and let you know how it goes.

» Post Ad Purchase:  Banner Ad

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I just read on John Chow how Entrecard is going to be removing/banning sites that have only the entrecard widget and no other content. I say its about time.

I understand the need/want for EC (entrecard credits) because you want to advertise on john chow or darren rowse’s Problogger.net but to stoop so low as to only have a widget and then surf to 300 of these daily to rack up credits? Does anyone really have that much time?

I know I don’t. Some of my time has to be spent playing games like Assassin’s Creed. I’m almost finished with that one…it’s pretty good but has problems. Read my review at GAX Online.

Summer has a tendency to slow down ad revenue and other online money making strategies simply because most people get out and do stuff. Because of this, if you don’t have your ducks in a row so to speak you are going to suffer for the next 3 months. Summer is officially underway and if you don’t have plans to make some extra cash offline, you might be eating beans and rice for a few months.

I’ll be updating my income statement for June in about 4 days, so look forward to that. Locally, each Friday night during the summer there is a free concert and two big names are playing this summer. These concerts are right on the beach. Check out the schedule. I’m looking forward to Blue Oyster Cult and  Gin Blossoms!

The weekend’s almost here which means a couple films for me Saturday and then I’m recording the 9th episode of my podcast “The East Wing Podcast“. Listen in won’t you?

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Not to be out done by John Chow, John Cow is having a contest on his blog, sponsored by Market Leverage. The prize is a new iPhone 3G!

If you were one of the early adopters of the iPhone you know the data speeds and coverage could be better and starting in July they will be. Apple announced the 3G version of the iPhone at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference this year.  They also announced a drop in price…but there’s a catch. Only existing owners get the price break. New purchases and subscribers pay the full price of $399. So you can save yourself the $399 now and enter to win one.

Head on over to JohnCow.com and enter.

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I didn’t really ask for anything for Father’s Day this year mainly because I don’t need anything. After thinking about it for a while I decided that there was one thing I wanted. I told my wife I wanted a video camera. I then began looking around at the different options and came up with some criteria.

1. I wanted it to be small enough that carrying it around wasn’t going to be cumbersome and cheap enough it wouldn’t break my wallet.
2. I also wanted it to be HD so I wouldn’t be looking to upgrade to a new camera in a couple years, and it will work with my current whopping, huge, enormous 27″ HDTV.
3. Lastly, I wanted to have massive storage so I wouldn’t be having to dump the files every time I turn it off.

So…2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

I ended up buying an Aiptek A-HD+ 1080p camcorder. I said 2 out of 3 because it was a) cheap & small and b) it was HD.

What I failed to realize, however is it only came with 128MB of built in memory. I ended up tracking down a 32 GB SDHC card from Amazon.com for $150. That’s half of what I saw elsewhere. Panasonic makes a 32 GB card for over $300. The PNY was not only cheap but it can store a ton of video at 1080p 60fps. We’re talking 17 hours! That’s plenty and I can’t wait to use it.

Expect to be seeing some video posts soon. The card pictured here isn’t what I bought, but Amazon is currently out of stock. I got one of the last two left. You can search for it by putting in this: P-SDHC32G4-FS.

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Today we mourn the passing of a comic genius. I can’t count the times I’ve rattled off some joke or another that wasn’t first uttered by George Carlin.

He had a penchant for speaking the obvious yet making it known you didn’t know it was obvious to begin with. One of my favorite memories of him is from the live show I saw a couple years ago when he came through my home town. I got tickets for myself and my best friend and it had to be the funniest show I have ever seen.

George Carlin was known for speaking his mind about politics, energy, the world, people, pretty much any subject the felt like talking about. The most amazing thing, though was he had such an acute point of view on everything.

I consider him the ultimate cynic because everything you have ever thought about your neighbor, friend, wife, lover…he’s already come to terms with and has it recorded somewhere for you to laugh about.

He really will be missed. His comedy was always a treat and my 365 day calendar is going to be a little bit lonelier when it’s done. Goodbye George…nice knowing you.

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I love contests. Not only are they a good way to get traffic to your blog, but writing about them usually earns you a few extra entries as well.

The infamous John Chow is giving away a whole bag of goodies courtesy of Market Leverage. The prizes include:

• Flip Video Camera
• $200 Market Leverage American Express Gift Card
• USB Pen Drive
• iPod Nano

You can win all these fabulous prizes by going to JohnChow.com and posting a comment.

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I wanted to post about the Indiana Jones Top Trumps winner(s) on Sunday, but I was busy saying goodbye to a very dear friend who passed away that evening.

Only one person commented on the post, so he definitely wins one of these Top Trumps packs. David Dunn of Ferrari Dave blog has won one of these packs. David is also a previous winner of An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund which I gave away in January.That leaves 3 more for others to win. I’m extending the deadline to the end of the month, so on July 1st I will announce the rest of the winners. It’s so easy to enter I can’t believe I’m not announcing more winners. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post stating you want to enter. 3 prizes will be randomly chosen using random.org.

I realize it’s not something big like an Apple 3G iPhone or a Sony Playstation 3 but this blog is still in its infancy. I’d love to give away bigger and better prizes and as the blog grows I’m sure I will. I’m always looking for sponsors, advertisers and prizes to give away. If you want to donate a prize for my next giveaway just use the contact form and email me.

I hold contests like this because it’s my small way of giving back to the community. Albert Einstein had these words of wisdom:

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

I truly believe you need to give what you can. It’s what makes life worth living and what truly makes us happy.

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I saw the midnight show of You Don’t Mess With The Zohan last night with a friend and it was pretty funny. It’s typical Adam Sandler wackiness but it has some really funny moments to it. The cast includes a very thin Rob Schneider, John Turturro as the “bad guy”, Emmanuel Chirqui as the love interest and a host of other actors you’ve seen in previous films like Grandma’s Boy and Happy Gilmore.

After the movie, we noticed a bunch of packages of Top Trumps Indiana Jones cards lying about so I snatched up 4 of them and I’m giving them away. These are promotional packs for the Collectible Card Game featuring characters from Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The game is played like war and can be played between 2-6 players.

To win a pack all you need to do is comment here. If there are more than 4 people commenting I will draw winners randomly from random.org. The drawing will be held this sunday, so hurry up!

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