Hey, Guess What?

First of all, yes, I'm still here and I apologize for not updating here in absolutely ages.  Yes, I have been neglectful.  Bad blogger!

Second....

I FINALLY HIT PAYOUT WITH ADSENSE!

Yes, it has taken more than a year but I got there and I am so damn happy about it.  I have heard that once you hit that first payout the time in between gets shorter and shorter.

What I've Been Doing

Well, I've been doing quite a few things.  As always, I bounce around.  I think I have IADD - Internet Attention Deficit Disorder.  But that is one of the things that I love about working from home.  I can do what I want when I want for however long I want.

Some of the things I have been working on:

• Writing for clients
• Writing  my own blogs (I have 3 that I try to keep regularly updated and several more that are more sporadic)
• Writing articles
• Coming up with new ways to make money online.

First, let's talk about residual earnings.  Obviously, that has been going ok.  I see my earning creeping up a little bit each month.  One of the biggest differences has been my YouTube Channel.  I mentioned awhile ago (in November I think) that I got approved for monetization and that it was good.  Each month, I've continued to see those clicks come in and on average, they have a higher CTR than my articles or my blogs (with one exception, which I'll get into in a second) so one of my goals has been to make more videos.  Now monetization is good - but Partnership would be even better!  So I am going to make an concerted effort to make more videos and get more subscribers so that I can make Partnership by the end of the year.

The other venue that has been increasing my residual earnings is the site that I started back in August.  I don't know if I actually mentioned it or not but it is called Live Without a Job (LWAJ) and it is all about the various factors that should be considered and that are important.  I cover basic living (food, entertainment, etc.) as well as sources of income and I often feature blogs that I think have value for my readers.  I'm not as high as I would like to be with traffic yet but it is getting there and the CTR on that site is pretty decent.  And the amount earned from clicks are pretty good, too.  So that is definitely a site that is on my radar.

Between those two earners I've decided that I need to really put some effort into 1) making blog posts on LWAJ and 2) turning those blog posts into videos.  This is especially good when I do a Featured Blog because then the person that I've featured often links back to me or embeds  my video, which brings my ads on YouTube into a new place.  Love that.

I continue to do my article marketing on InfoBarrel and the earnings there have definitely increased.  Not posting as much on Bukisa or Hubpages because I don't really think those are worth my time.  I am using  Best-Reviewer for backlinks because they are fast and pretty easy and they also have an adsense program.

I have added one more venue to my residual earnings plan and that  is Examiner.  Your earnings there are based on views, not clicks, so you can do pretty good if you know how to promote yourself.  I haven't been there quite a month yet and I've only posted 6 articles and I've almost made $2.  So I think it is worth doing.  The hardest part for me is that I have a local channel for a city that I don't actually live in.  Thank goodness for the Internet.

I'm actually thinking of signing up for another sight that offers pay per click.  I'll let  you know how that goes.

Oh, and on the home front....I'm a grandma!  Well, Naenae.  Same thing.  My baby had a baby - much earlier than I would have liked but it is what it is and I have a beautiful little granddaughter that makes me smile every day.

So...what have you all been up to?

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.

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. :)