Welcome to my November blog and income update! Notice I added “income” to the title. Guess what everyone, I’m going to start sharing my income reports from this blog. I’ve had numerous requests to share this information, so why not right?
First off, let me tell you that I’m not doing this to gloat or to “show off.” I’m doing this to share with you things I’m learning along the way. Also, it’s a great opportunity to take my mistakes, avoid them, and have the same success with your blog!
Another reason is for pure transparency. I hate the feeling of a veil over my online endeavors, so this will help my mind stay at ease in terms of staying honest with you the readers!
As this is my first income report, I want to give you a disclaimer. If you read this article and start to think that online income is easy, WRONG! It took hours upon hours to build this site up and get it to where it is now. Late nights, blood shot eyes, missed gym workouts, sacrifices were made for sure. So keep that in mind if you have wishes of online success overnight!
General Blog Update
November was definitely a month of introspection in terms of where I want this blog to go. After much consideration, I’m making it a goal for 2012 to finally break into video and start a YouTube channel. Blogging in text alone just isn’t enough. I’m finding that many people just don’t engage in visual text as much as they do video.
You can expect a Free Money Wisdom you tube channel to pop up sometime in January. I plan on talking about various personal finance topics and even taking reader questions and answering them on video. This is a huge step for me as video just flat out scares me! I’m nervous but it’s something I need to do.
As for the blog itself, I’m sure you’ve noticed various design changes. A big change was to take down 99% of the advertising. I want to create a reader driven platform and focus on my content. I don’t want my readers to be distracted by large advertising banners. You’ll notice a single banner up top to the right of my header. Feel free to sign up for whatever ad is shown. I will only be placing ads in that spot for companies I support 100%. Your wellbeing comes before any type of affiliate commission I make from this blog.
Another goal of mine is to guest post at least twice a month. Part of this is to attract new readers, but it’s also to share some of my content on other personal finance websites.
Guest posts during November:
Consumerism Commentary- “Construction Revolutionized my Finances.”
Moneyning- “Take Control of Your Finances, or Else!”
Another big even that happened on this blog during November was the addition of my fiancee (Hannah) as a staff writer! She is a wonderful writer and will provide readers with a unique female perspective on personal finance issues. I’m really excited to have her aboard and contributing. Feel free to hit up my ABOUT PAGE to see a picture of us. We’re getting married May 12th and I couldn’t be more excited, woo hoo! You can check out her latest article “Cut it out America” here.
Blog Stats for November
It was yet another solid month for Free Money Wisdom. With a combination of guest posting and an added focus on SEO, I saw my Google traffic spike. I want to give a big thanks to all my dedicated readers for sharing my article via social media. It really means a lot when I see mentions!
Alright, here are the stats for the month of November-
Page Rank: Still at 3…
Alexa Rank: 82,000
Facebook fans: 943
Twitter followers: 1,546
Total subscribers: 398 (Feel free to join my email list!)
Total visits: 8,237
Absolute unique visitors: 7,707
Total page views: 13,207
Average time on the site: 1.29 minutes
I’m happy with the traffic stats but I’m NOT happy with the average time on my site! I’ve tried to create a site layout that encourages readers to check out other articles, but something isn’t working! I have my suspicions that it may be my content. Adding links within articles is something I’m pretty lazy at… I’d like to see this hit two minutes by the end of December.
Income Report for November
Income was pretty solid for the month of November considering the holidays. I’m hoping things pick up in January. I’ve been really trying to make a push to make more of my income through affiliate marketing. One thing that is important to point out is that I refuse to push products that I don’t support 100%. So, if you see a review or a mention on Twitter, you’ll know that it has my “stamp of approval.”
Affiliate Earnings: $602
Private Ads: $1,505
Staff Writing: $250
Total income for the month of November: $2,357
Woo hoo! All in all it was a great month. A big thanks to everyone that fosters the Free Money Wisdom community and for singing up through my affiliate links. I’m so extremely thankful for everything and praise God for this opportunity to help people with their finances and make some extra money on the side!
You’ll notice some changes to my navigation bar! I’ve added some resource pages packed full of content on this site as well as products and totally free services that I recommend. Here they are:
Must Reads– This page lists out the most popular articles on free Money Wisdom as well as articles that I feel you should read! It’s the “cream of the crop” if you will 😉
Bible and Money– Since this is a Christian website, it’s natural to have numerous Bible based financial articles. Did you know that the Bible refers to money thousands of times? Well, on this page, I list out various articles I’ve written and hope you enjoy the content.
Credit Cards I Like– This page entails my favorite credit cards and are cards that I recommend to everyone. You can’t go wrong with these. Remember, if you are irresponsible with money, don’t get a credit card! I would never want someone to go into debt because I wanted some extra affiliate income. Your personal financial life is more important to me than making money on this blog.
Best Banks– Are you ever confused about banks and which ones you should open your next account with? I did all the leg work for you and came up with my personal favorite list of the top banks you should invest your money. Many of these banks offer high yield interest accounts so you can start growing things like your emergency fund!
Top Brokers– As an avid investor, I’ve dabbled with numerous online brokers and I feel that this page points you in the right direction. You can check out my take on the different brokerages and make your own decision on where you want to trade.
During the month of November, I was featured in quite a few Carnivals. Here they are:
Carnival of PF #333
Money go Around Carnival November
Canadian Finance #61
Best of Money #117
Carnival of Financial Planning #210
Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #7
Canadian Finance Carnival #62
Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #8
Canadian Finance Carnival #63
Carnival of Financial Planning Thanksgiving Edition
Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #9
Canadian Finance Carnival #64
Yakezie Carnival: San Diego Edition
Festival of Frugality #307
And that concludes the November blog stats and income update! I’m looking forward to much more growth in 2012 and beyond. Again, a big thanks to all my readers who have helped spread the word of what we’re doing on this blog.
If you haven’t signed up for my 7 day e-course “How to Retire a Millionaire” I recommend you do by going here. Don’t be shy, please feel free to contact me with a question or just to say hello!
Have an excellent December and God bless!
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