Well, for those of you that are not on my Facebook, I finally sold my house. I started short selling it last February after 7 months past the time my older sister was to move out of my place so that I could rent it. Needless to say the house is finally sold and the animosity between us has grown even more intense. I’m just trying to move on and doing my best not to blame her even though its easy to do. That house was the last and final tie I had to my ex from a financial point of view. I am glad its over and I no longer have to deal with it.
I have been dating an amazing man about 5 weeks now. Well, I shouldn’t just say dating because he is my boyfriend now. Anyhow, you get the idea. He’s fabulous and he makes me incredibly happy. He’s been really supportive with all this house selling drama and he even came to support me during a time when there was going to be some awkwardness between my ex and his new wife. So, I figure if he can handle all this semi-drama now, he’s a keeper!
Now onto my business. I had a really fantastic earning month for September. I earned $1700 combined between adsense and my google affiliate network sales. What sucks was seeing my earnings drop to nearly half after the latest October 13th Panda change. It sucks to be seeing $28-35 a day and suddenly be back to earning $10-12 a day again. The good news is my sites only slipped a few spots so I definitely see them springing back from this. It’s definitely nothing like the mayday update but still, I’m feeling the hit on my income bigtime. It’s even to the point where I am even questioning why am I still doing this when my income is never set and steady. I never can just walk away thinking that these changes will never happen and that my income is always going to be solid. I seriously started toying with the idea of getting a *gasp* job! It’s not something I wanna do. I don’t want to have to give up my dreams of my online business because I love what I do. I love that I make my own hours, that I don’t have a boss and that I can work as much or as little as I want. I am not sure I am ready to give all that up and go back to the world of being owned by somebody else. But it’s hard. This business is hard. No one ever said it was going to be easy. You constantly have to be putting time and energy into your sites to earn money…plain and simple. I think we are finally seeing how for the most part, long gone are the days of setting up a site, tossing a few back links at it and then forgetting it and it starts magically earning by itself. Our sites (my sites) are always going to need to be worked on. It’s just the way it is.
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Hey Sara – Sorry to hear you got hit by the Oct 13th update. Me too – although only a handful of sites suffered, the ones that did tended to be older and better earners. I wasn’t affected by other Panda updates, and thought I would be pretty immune to future changes. But in the end, as long as we rely on Google for our money, it will be unpredictable. These kind of changes definitely discourage a lot of people, but I hope you don’t throw in the towel any time soon.
For me, I’m taking the strategy of building multiple sites in niches I know are profitable. And diversify beyond Google as well. I’m definitely ramping up efforts in list building and other strategies that wean yourself off of traffic purely from Google (such as ViperChill’s cloud blueprint stuff). Also, moving to the vendor side of things and maybe even looking at producing Kindle ebooks are other interesting ideas (to me, at least). You are right that it certainly isn’t easy. It takes a lot of effort to succeed in IM (despite what the WSO’s and ebooks promise). I hope you see some good results from your efforts soon! And congratulations on your new relationship – and new “chapter” in your life.
Michelle recently posted..September 2011 Update
I don’t think I can just throw in the towel. At least I am not ready too yet. I did recover from Mayday and I imagine in a month or two, I will probably recover from this update as well. of course it took me about 9 months to recover from the Mayday effect so I am hoping it won’t take me nearly that long.
I hate list building but it might be something I need to incorporate in my arsenal in order to try and boost my income besides relying on new visitors daily from Google.
The Kindle ebooks sounds interesting, Michelle. Good luck with that!
Hi Sara,
Affiliate income alone definitely depends on too many outside factors to be live on without any worries. That is why I made the step from affiliate marketing alone to having my own business. I still enjoy what I do immensely but I’m not dependent anymore on google search rankings and the salespages of others.
Others might not have the same issues with the fluctuating income but I just can’t relax not knowing how much I’ll earn in a given month. I want to be certain I, at least, reach a minimum baseline every month.
Leslie
Leslie Bogaerts recently posted..An Update
That’s awesome that you have your own business. I did that prior to my divorce when I was selling wooden toy trains online. I wasn’t doing so bad with it. My first year I was doing an average of $500 a month in profit sales and then during the Christmas season that was boosted to about $1,000 a month in profit sales but unfortunately right after the holidays I got hit with a double whammy of finding out my husband was cheating on me and I was served a cease and desist letter with a claim from my competitor stating our names were too similar and that people were “mistakenly” purchasing from me thinking it was his company. Our names were not similar at all and our sites were very different looking. My store carried only 1 product line while he was selling all sorts of toys. Anyhow, I don’t think I could handle the stress of having an actual goods store again but when it was good, it was good!
“I think we are finally seeing how for the most part, long gone are the days of setting up a site, tossing a few back links at it and then forgetting it and it starts magically earning by itself. Our sites (my sites) are always going to need to be worked on. It’s just the way it is.”
That part should be bolded IMO. You are right, and yes a few of my sites got affected due to the bad combination of panda update+low economy -people are clicking more (adsense) than buying (Clickbank) I guess. But like you said, things would surely better after a couple of months.
Arindam Chakraborty recently posted..Clickbank Targets Vendors Again – With Higher PENALTIES This Time!
Sara -
Sorry to hear Panda got your sites. I’m convinced there’s no rhyme or reason to it all, but looking at the Google Quality Rater’s handbook I was surprised to read a few things (like the tidbit about, “No matter what, if they’re hotel affiliates, they’re spam…” despite the quality of the site – funny that: it’s only because Google’s a hotel affiliate!).
Anyway, like M said above, diversifying traffic sources is really a big priority for me as well, though I wasn’t “hit.” Google hates affiliates since we’re competing, and hates SEO’s since we don’t buy their ads (normally).
They have a duplicitous business model, and a hostile one that’s pretty easy to see through, at least once you start reading between the lines (OK and SEOBook’s blog doesn’t give me a peachy outlook). So far I haven’t been hit – but who’s to say how long that lasts?
I’ve been looking at other traffic sources to supplement my income, and multiplying sites in proven niches as well – otherwise like M said: being a vendor helps. Duct Tape SEO is now an official revenue source for me – and I think of other products (like fiction ebooks – seriously – or books on marriage or parenting, I’m just thinking out loud)…there’s a lot of opportunity for anyone in digital marketing to self-publish or provide SEO services, flipping sites, list building…local SEO: you name it.
Given your skill set, I think you could offer a lot to clients, especially in the local SEO space (build a great site, get some links and sell leads?). Just a thought. A job isn’t going to kill you, but I’d be thinking how to leverage what you know and the new marketing methods that a lot of businesses would pay for. You have a lot of talent you could offer someone.
James Hussey recently posted..How Not To Make Money Online – The Death of 1,000 Ideas
Sara I hope you don’t throw in the towel too. Like James said you have a lot of talents you could use to diversify your IM business. I think life throws distractions at us and it gets in the way of our passion. And $1700 is not chump change. But diversifying = survival imo.
Good luck to you!
Hi Sara, grats on your new numbers (been awhile since I visited) and good for you on selling your house, paving the way to your new life. I’m sorry to hear it’s caused drama between sisters but with time surely you two will find common ground again, if nothing else agree to disagree.
Hi.. I came across to your blog for the first time. Read quite a few of your posts and learned a lot.
Good to hear that things are taking a positive twist for you. All the best.. keep writing more!
Shamelle recently posted..5 Ways Better Blogging Ways Is Different From Every Other Blog On Blogging
Hi Sara,
Rift between siblings are as natural as the air we breathe, so is constantly making up, so don’t worry about it. One good thing after another seems to come into your life, the house selling, new boyfriend and the numbers. You have all three going great, you’re so lucky you have this online business. This is the best (my humble opinion) work to have at this point in our economy. Besides, as you say, you’re not ready to be owned again by another boss. So keep up the hard work, and hope you keep doing good!
Amy Turner recently posted..Holiday Shopping Trends: Save Money
Sara,
Congrats on selling your house! I’m sure that is a huge weight off of your shoulders.
If you decide to get a job, don’t look at it as “throwing in the towel.” You can still work on your sites on evenings and weekends, or maybe outsource some of the content.
What would it be like if you weren’t under the gun for your sites to produce and the money you made online was extra?
As several others have said, you can’t control what Google does, so if your income comes from online, you kind of need to have enough sources of income that if one gets tanked, you’re still okay.
A friend of mine has had a 6 figure blog for over a decade, but she still has a day job. Could she live off of her online income? Yes, but she likes the security (and the benefits) of a 9 to 5. The online income gives her money to invest and have fun with. She takes a lot of trips, and when she was laid off from her job over a year ago, she didn’t have to stress about finding a new one . . . she did . . . but her other income gave her the luxury of being more choosy.
Don’t be so caught up in wanting to “live the IM lifestyle” that you pass up an opportunity that will work better for you and your son.
Carla recently posted..Profiles are for People
Hi hope selling the house takes the pressure off. Were going through a home sale also it is bad enough with out family problems. I am just started in making cash marketing and made it past the panda Ok so far. I am not making a full income yet but it is on the increase.