What Would You Like to Know?

So, this isn't an income report but it does have to do with increasing your income.  And it is a request, too.

You see, I decided to monetize my YouTube account and see what would happen.  I didn't think I'd really get much because I don't have a LOAD  of traffic there.  I actually only have one video that gets much action.  But I figured I would try it out anyway.

And I was shocked!  Now apparently it is against Google's TOS to talk about click through rates and stuff like that but what I can tell  you is that my CTR is much higher than any other site that I have monetized.  And the amount per click is generally higher, too.

So, if you have a YouTube  channel that you get any kind of traffic to - get in there an monetize those videos now!  It is super cool and I'm so hyped about it.  I've put up three new videos lately - I'm just trying to figure out what gets the traffic.

If there is something you'd like to know about Blogger blogs or WordPress blogs or residual earnings or writing or social media - please ask and I'll make a video about it.  If you have a site I'll even leave a link to your site in the description of the video so you might get some traffic, too!

Leave me a question in the comments!

Time To Make a New Plan!

Image by MoonSoleil via Flickr - This is what I am working for!  Beautiful scenes like this to enjoy every day!

So, I'm a tad off target with my residual earnings plan aren't I?  LOL

That's ok.  Sometimes you just gotta stop what you were doing, refocus, and get inspired again.  And there's nothing better to get you inspired than...

...a challenge!


A couple of writing chicks that I know have gotten together to inspire each other with a $50 a month HubPages challenge.  And I love this type of thing so I jumped in even though I was not on HubPages before.

I've put up my first two hubs and have decided I like it so I'm going to give it a go.  I'm still going to do InfoBarrel as well but I'm going to lay off of Bukisa for a bit.  I have a lot of content there and while I get more traffic there, the click throughs are not fabulous.  HubPages has a multi-earning thing going on (you can earn from Adsense, the HubPages Ad program, and Amazon) so I think it might be worth exploring.  And the community seems pretty nice, too.  That's one of the things I love about InfoBarrel so I figure that will be a perk at HubPages, as well.

So, what is this plan you might ask?

Well, once again, I am being aggressive.  I don't do anything half way.  I figure that I can dedicate an hour a day to MYSELF so I'm going to do 1 article at HubPages and 1 at InfoBarrel from Monday - Thursday.  Friday is going to be backlinking day.

One thing I am going to do a little differently is I am going to have a theme for each week.  Like this week, the theme is teens.  So, by the end of the week there will be 4 teen themed articles at HubPages and 4 teen themed articles at InfoBarrel.  The HubPages hubs will be interlinked to each other and to the IB articles and vice versa.

I'm also going to use other sites to build links, like Best-Reviewer.com - they are pretty cool because you can build a list and each point can have a dofollow link in it.  I'm going to use Blogger by creating a blog on that theme with a 100-200 word summary of each article and a link to it (and of course, the blog will be Adsense and Amazon optimized as well).  And then I will use my other bookmarking sites to create links, too.

I'm going to try to check in here weekly to share what I have done.

Pre-approval and The Keyword Academy

Image via Wikipedia

It completely blows my mind that the month is almost over!  How did that happen?

The month isn't a complete loss though.  I've learned a lot and I have added quite a few articles to my residual earnings sites.  Not as many as I wanted but getting there.  I know that one of the things that is holding me back is the fact that I really, really need to get a schedule.

Honestly, schedules have always been the thing that stops me from getting past a certain level of success.  If I could get a grip on this schedule thing I know I would accomplish so much more.  So, I'm going to focus on schedule in June and nothing else.  The amount of articles I write and the amount of money that comes in will be secondary.  But the truth is that I think if I develop a schedule and stick to it, both of those will increase as a result.

I've still got 2 and a half days in the month so  I'm not going to give you any numbers here.  You'll have to wait until my update!  LOL

But I will tell you that I got pre-approval at InfoBarrel, which means no more waiting for articles to be approved.  That's a good thing.  I'm enjoying automatic publishing now! LOL

Oh, and I joined The Keyword Academy.  I figured why not - the first month is free so why not see what they have to offer.  I doubt that I'll continue on past the first month because I find that I am suffering from information overload.  I have enough reading to do as it  is. I have to say the forum is pretty good and the Wordtracker tool is cool too.  But  I'll likely let you know  how it goes later in June.

Way Behind

Well, I started the month off with a bang but things got busy and before you know it I am way behind.  It is only the 20th though so there is still a possibility of catching up.  Maybe.

I am seeing more clicks on my ads though.  I'm almost at the same amount as last month so I should have a little more incoming ad clicks yet.

I'm starting to think that I should do more stuff in bulk.  Like write 20 articles and then do the backlinking and other stuff.  One of the things I've seen suggested is to write articles in set.  Like 5 articles about being an administrative professional all with different keywords and then doing a linkwheel that links to each of those articles and each other.  Does that make sense?

This is what it would look like (click to see bigger):

So, five articles on InfoBarrel, 6 articles in the linkwheel.  Each of the articles on InfoBarrel are linked to each other with anchor text.  Each of the linkwheel articles is linked to all 5 of the InfoBarrel articles using their anchor text and to each other.  Every article (all 11 of them) have backlinks going to them from Stumbleupon, Tagza, etc.

I've done this (actually I paid for it) with two of my niche sites and about two weeks later they are both starting to show results with more traffic generally and specifically more search engine traffic.

I'm going to try this and see if I have better results than just putting up loads of articles.  Work smarter, not harder, right?

It's Really Not Easy

Image via Wikipedia

I really hate it when people say how easy it is to earn residual income online.  If you're one of those people stop saying it because it just is not true!  Earning passive income is just as hard as earning money from writing in other ways - sometimes harder.

I think the hardest thing is the motivation.  For me anyway.  When I'm earning money by writing for a client I don't really  need any motivation other than a deadline and the lure of getting paid and padding my Paypal account.  I love seeing the numbers go up there.  And doing client writing means that I don't have to wait until some point in the future to see the money - usually no more than a week anyway.

Now residual income - it's like gambling a little bit.  You might see some great return on it - you might not.  All depends how much work you put into it.  I mean, if you don't build your backlinks, you aren't going to see much in return.  If you don't promote your articles, minimal return is what you'll get.  But even if you did the job right and you put the hours in, the big money isn't going to come for awhile.  Even then, you have to have chosen the right keywords and so on.

There are so many variables!!!

So, if you think that residual income is an easy way to make some fast money, you are barking up the wrong tree.  You're better off sticking to a paying, outside the house job.

But, if you are willing to learn, put in some hard work, write like a crazy person, and then wait a bit (short bit, long bit, could go either way), then you should definitely jump right in and join me on this crazy journey. :)

Too Much Reading Makes Me Confused

Image via Wikipedia

If you're involved in the making money from residual income niche you have likely felt the same as me at some point.  You're trying to learn all you can about earning from passive income and there's so much out there to take in that it just gets all muddled in your brain.

That's what is going on with me right now.  I've been reading the forums over at InfoBarrel (and don't get me wrong - there is loads of good stuff there) and checking out other sites for building backlinks and building up other forms of passive income.  And I just feel like I have to stop because I keep coming across new sites or new places that I could use but I can't take  it all in.  There's just too much!

I honestly don't know what to do first.

I have kept up with my article writing and I've actually told one of my private writing clients that I need to take a break from writing.  I want to be able to focus on getting the articles out there and backlinking them - at least to my main 26 sites.

The  thing that is driving me crazy is that I know there is more.  26 backlinks on social bookmarking sites is just not going to be enough to do the trick.  I have to do more.  So I'm wondering if I should just put the "more" aside for a little bit and focus on getting some content up there.  Once I have 100 or so articles on each site (Bukisa and InfoBarrel) I can stop or slow down the article writing for a bit and focus on building links in like building linkwheels and stuff.

Linkwheels are something that really fascinates me because you know, I could build one linkwheel that would serve as backlinks to more than just one article.  It could have links to several articles in it.  I've paid to have two linkwheels done for me (for my niche blogs) and I think that I could handle it on my own now.  The only thing it that it does take time.  And if i am going to build my own linkwheels I'm going to want to create somewhat different articles for each part of the wheel   (the ones I bought for $5 used the same article).  But if I had a good article spinning program that would make it much easier.  I'm not sure if I want to invest in that or not.

Anyway, just some thoughts.  If you'r building up your passive income or have already had success, how do you deal with  all the wealth of information that is out there?

Keeping Up!

I'm pretty darned proud of myself because so far this month I am actually keeping up with my residual  earnings article writing.

I've written 6 articles for InfoBarrel (3 are still waiting for approval) and 3 for Bukisa. I'm going to at least one more for Bukisa today and maybe one more for InfoBarrel. InfoBarrel is having it's monthly contest on Top Lists - I love doing those.  I did my first list on The Top 20 Reasons for Freelance Writers to Use Social Media.

I've got another idea for a top list building already so I'm not going to write much here today. I just wanted to update about it. :)

Having a Hard Time with Organization

Image by Earthworm via Flickr

The story of my life - organization - I suck at it.  Believe it or not, I used to be an administrative assistant and organization was critical for me.  Even more unbelievable is that I used to teach an administrative assistant course and one of the things I had to teach was organization skills. So I know this stuff, but do you think I have succeeded in being organized as a freelancer?  Not a chance!

I am not sure why but I just have not managed to get my organization skills working for me at home.  I get lost on Facebook or I get sidetracked reading an article about blogging or I find a really cool plug in that I have to install immediately.  And before you know it the morning is over and I haven't really accomplished a damn thing.

Right now I have articles for pay that need to be written and I have written any residual articles in days.  Mind you, I have had some really crazy things going on in my life this past week.  I'm amazed that I've managed to do anything.  I found out that before the year is out I'm going to be a grandma!  It's not the ideas situation because my daughter is only 16 but I can't help but be a bit excited.  She's pretty much decided to keep it and I'll be damned if I'm going to make this a miserable experience for anyone.  This child will come into the world loved and cherished and I'm going to be there to help my daughter become a good mom.

Anyway, I have gotten a few more articles up and I've done some work on my niche blogs.  I found a guy at Fiverr.com that does these awesome linkwheels and I plan on using him again for sure.

So, I just wanted to let you know I haven't given up on this project - I'm just a little side tracked. :)

2 More Residual Earnings Articles Up

Well, I missed the weekend (I tend to be pretty unorganized on weekends and with teenager chaos usually rules) but I did get my two articles up this morning - one on Bukisa and one on InfoBarrel.  I'm waiting for approval for both of them but that should be ready before the end of the day.

I've been watching my Google Adsense stats religiously for the past couple of days.  LOL.  It is kind of funny because it is just like when I first signed up with them.  But I have seen that I get more traffic at Bukisa than I do at InfoBarrel. That might be because I have more content there than at InfoBarrel.  I guess we'll see what happens as time progresses and I get more backlinking done.

It is too early to tell much yet, but I just thought I would throw a quick update in here so you know I'm not slacking.

Sites for Residual Earnings

Image via CrunchBase

I've decided to start with two sites for residual earnings:

• InfoBarrel
• Bukisa

I've decided on these two primarily because I've already got articles there and because I've had some success with them in the past (on a small level - remember that I haven't put a huge amount of effort into either one of them).

I think for now I am going to make a goal of posting a new article each day on each site.  So, that's 14 articles a week.  I know that doesn't seem like a lot but I do have a lot of other things on my plate.  I have 3 private clients that bring in a good portion of my income and I have a part time teaching job as well.  And I have a couple of blogs.

I guess the blogs come into play with my residual earnings as well because I do have Adsense on them, too.  My main blog actually does quite well and has good traffic.  Hopefully, I can build this one up to that. :)

I'll be doing keyword research for each post and I'll be submitting it to social bookmarking sites.  I'm going to use IMAutomator plus a few other sites like Digg, Delicious, SheToldMe and StumbleUpon.

And of course, I think I'll do income reports.  I've never done that before but I think that in a blog like this it can be very useful.  I'm only going to include the income that has to do with residual earnings though.

So, I'll be back soon with some progress reports!

Day 1: I Need a Plan!

First, welcome to my blog about earning residual income.  I know there are many other blogs out there that are like this so if you choose to follow me on this journey I'll be really excited. :)

I'm a little different than the total newb that is trying to make residual income because I've actually been online for years.  I have a very successful blog about social media for freelance writers.  I've been earning money as a freelance writer for about 8 years.  I have already been using residual earning sites - just not effectively.  I even know how to do keyword research and writer keyword optimized articles.

But I've never actually tried to implement a plan with the intent of making real money from residual earning sites.  It has all been rather random.

But I know that it is possible to make decent money and I think that it would be very cool to be able to earn money consistently from Google Adsense.  And I want to put some actual effort into it and that means I need a plan.

One of the things I do is article marketing for a client.  They don't care where the articles are placed - as long as there are backlinks to their site in there.  So, why use article marketing sites that I get nothing back from when I can use sites that allow me to earn some residual income at the same time?  So, a lot of the articles that I write will be double earners.

But I want to take this opportunity to write articles that I'm actually interested in as well.  Some of the topics I plan on covering include:

• Working at home
• Writing
• Anxiety and panic disorder
• Depression
• Drugs/Teen drug abuse
• Social media

I have to do some research on those but I know at least a few of those will be profitable.

So, if you're interested in earning money online with me, follow my blog!