google adsense Archives - Lazy Man and Money

As I expected last month, my vacation made this post a little later than I thought. I’ll keep this brief, because I don’t really know if it excites anyone to read how much I made last month in alternative income. For new readers who are wondering what alternative income is, it’s a little like passive income. However, since income is rarely entirely passive, I like to call it alternative. Next month, I plan on putting together a FAQ explaining it in more detail.

This month was actually a good example of alternative income. I was in Aruba for a week and only spent a few hours online catching up with e-mail. While I was enjoying a pool named after me at the Marriott Surf Club (“Lazy River”), my websites were earning me money. It’s good money by alternative income standards, but not great by Silicon Valley standards.

I could beat around the bush a little more, but my alternative income for last month was $1,766.63 after accounting for taxes. The highlight of the month was Google AdSense. I don’t know what happened or how it happened, but it was 25% more than the month before.

Plans for this month are to really get working on How To Fix and perhaps start monetizing it a bit. I am starting another website similar to that, but I’m going to be using my real name for it, so I won’t mention it here. It will be more technology-oriented and focus on a niche, so readers here probably shouldn’t feel too left out. Also, I plan on playing the editor/marketer with that site, so you won’t miss my ~~witty~~ boring writing.

The calendar flips and it’s time to reflect on my alternative income from last month. Executive summary: Not as good as last month, but more sustainable.

This was the first time in a couple of months that I didn’t have $500 from Revolution Media Exchange referrals to factor in. I knew this was going to happen so it wasn’t exactly unplanned.

The other disappointment came from the Forbes Network. I’m so disappointed that I’m not even going to link to them. They contacted me last November to be a part of their advertising network. They said that they’d send traffic to me and take 60% of ad sales. I was pretty skeptical, but when Forbes comes calling you have to listen. Many months later, it turns out they don’t really send any significant traffic – I get only 5 to 10 visitors a month. Their ad pricing also doesn’t compare with other advertising networks. I made almost enough to order a pizza with their ads this month. In short, it’s sullying the good name Forbes had built for itself.

With those hits to my alternative income, I was pretty worried that I’d be heading in the wrong direction. Then something interesting happened… the Google AdSense that had dropped to 30% of what it was bringing in, grew 70%. This is why it’s great to have various income streams. That replaced a good chunk of the $500. When a couple of new ads came in, it was almost a wash in the end. I’m also seeing some growth on Lazy Man and Health and at some point it may even turn from something that I do for mostly fun to something that brings in a profit. It all lead me to bring in a revenue of $1646.92 after taxes, but only $1330.26 after expenses.

The outlook for July is actually pretty good. I’d expect it to be one of my weaker months as people head away on vacation. However, the trend is moving up. Website traffic is moving up (thank you, readers). I’m crossing the “T”s and dotting the “I”s on a partnership that I’m increasing getting excited about. I’m also working on two or three projects, which if they work, will boost the bottom line quite a bit. I have to admit though, there’s a lot of sweat equity going into them.