This post is late again. This was another month that really tested the passive revenue earning potential for this blog. I was on holidays the entire month and wasn't able to update my blog either.

Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for July 2008

July's numbers and June's numbers are in brackets.

New records in every metric and by quite a large margin. I think this goes to prove that it isn't how much new content is put up, but how much good content has already been put up.

Thoughts From My Life Revenue

Overall, my earnings for July 2008 were $166.77. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets.

• PayU2Blog: $0.00 ($30.00)
• Adsense: $141.22 ($116.02)
• Kontera: $25.55 ($23.41)
• LinkWorth: $0
• Azoogle: $0.00
• Commission Junction: ($0.00)

My PayU2Blog went to $0 because I was not around. I have to write to earn with them. Fortunately, my Adsense picked up and got me within a few dollars of June's earnings anyways.

It has been an excellent month for traffic.

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Sorry for the really late post on the earnings. I left on holidays to the middle east on June 28th and didn't return until a couple days ago. June of 2008 summary is below.

Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for June 2008

June's numbers and May's numbers are in brackets.

This month was a record for almost every metric...again. Way more traffic and it was very consistent across the month. This is another example of where I didn't write all that much myself, but I did have consistent commenting and the numbers did improve.

Thoughts From My Life Revenue

Overall, my earnings for June 2008 were $169.43. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets.

• PayU2Blog: $30.00 ($95.00)
• Adsense: $116.02 ($168.77)
• Kontera: $23.41
• LinkWorth: $0
• Azoogle: $0.00
• Commission Junction: ($0.00)

My Adsense really dropped off for some reason. Interesting how it dropped that much with higher traffic.

It has been an excellent month for traffic but revenues definitely took a hit.

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May 2008 has come and past and another month of earnings is in the books. Another record for Adsense I might add.

Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for May 2008

May's numbers and April's numbers are in brackets.

This month was a record for almost every metric. Way more traffic and it was very consistent across the month. Kind of strange as I didn't write as much this month but traffic picked up for my usual articles.

Thoughts From My Life Revenue

Overall, my earnings for May 2008 were $290.09. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets.

• PayU2Blog: $95.00 ($65.00)
• Adsense: $168.77 ($135.14)
• Kontera: $26.32 ($29.69)
• LinkWorth: $0 ($10.50)
• Azoogle: $0.00 ($0.00)
• Commission Junction: $0.00 ($0.00)

My Adsense set a new record. It just keeps going up on the increased traffic to my old faithful articles.

It has been an excellent month for traffic and revenues overall. Especially considering my minimal effort in creating new articles. I pushed out a couple a week, but not the normal 5 a week I had been doing. I'm glad to see the passive income of Adsense is picking up.

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April finished last week, but I was a bit slow in tallying the results this time. I did have a new record this month and it maintained the status quo overall, but I still need to work on improving the traffic.

Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for April 2008

April's numbers and March's numbers are in brackets.

I had good traffic again across the whole month and set records just barely for a few of my metrics above. I am pleased with that as a few other bloggers have reported less earning for the month of April.

Thoughts From My Life Revenue

Overall, my earnings for April 2008 were $240.33. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets.

• PayU2Blog: $65.00 ($10.00)
• Adsense: $135.14 ($129.26)
• Kontera: $29.69 ($40.87)
• LinkWorth: $10.50 ($10.50)
• Azoogle: $0.00 ($0.00)
• Commission Junction: $0.00 ($0.00)

My Adsense set a new record. Kontera cooled off to the usual numbers it used to get for me.

I have some other bad news too. My LinkWorth advertiser has canceled their campaign so that won't be coming in starting next month. It was a trivial amount anyways, but nonetheless.

I am about ready to drop Azoogle and Commission Junction. The affiliate links get a few clicks on my site, but I haven't been able to generate sign ups so I'm still sitting at zero with them.

Overall, I am quite happy with the month again. I would definitely like to find some content to boost the traffic even more, but it always seems hit or miss.

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March was finished a couple days ago and it is time for the earnings report again.

Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for March 2008

March's numbers and February's numbers are in brackets.

Traffic was consistent the whole month. Most of my traffic came in for the same articles as last month:

• Acer Extensa 5420 review
• Acer Extensa 5420 Black Screen On Startup
• Frets On Fire - Free Version Of Guitar Hero
• Getting Frets On Fire Working On Vista
• Getting Frets On Fire Working On XP

Still showing very strong page views are my articles on the Best Nintendo DS Homebrew and Aeroplan Versus Air Miles - Comparing Them.

I definitely need to get some new good content out there. I will be doing a few travel articles for New York. The overall New York City article was published a few days ago.

Thoughts From My Life Revenue

Overall, my earnings for March 2008 were $190.63. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets.

• PayU2Blog: $10.00 ($110.00)
• Adsense: $129.26 ($94.29)
• Kontera: $40.87 ($29.67)
• LinkWorth: $10.50 ($10.50)
• Azoogle: $0.00 ($0.00)
• Commission Junction: $0.00 ($0.00)

My Adsense and Kontera set new records. Kontera smashed the old one by 33% more and almost as much for Adsense.

PayU2Blog was the biggest drop off. I didn't do some of the articles to meet this month's cutoff so they will go into next months, but I was still given a lot less articles to begin with. Not really a big deal anymore as my passive income like Adsense and Kontera have really picked up. 95% of my income was passive this month!. That is a new record as well! (Read more about Active and Passive Blog Income)

My 2 new revenue sources in Azoogle and Commission Junction haven't made a penny. I have realized that they take more work and involvement than just throwing them on your site. I thought I would at least get a couple of signups, but no luck. They are getting click throughs though, but I can see it in my statistics.

Overall, I am quite happy with the month again. I would definitely like to find some content to boost the traffic even more, but it always seems hit or miss.

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February is over now. It was a bit of a shorter month, but was a leap year too so was only 2 days shorter than January was.

Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for February 2008

February's numbers and January's numbers are in brackets.

Traffic was consistent the whole month. Most of my traffic came in for the following articles:

• Acer Extensa 5420 review
• Acer Extensa 5420 Black Screen On Startup
• Frets On Fire - Free Version Of Guitar Hero
• Getting Frets On Fire Working On Vista
• Getting Frets On Fire Working On XP

Still showing very strong page views are my articles on the Best Nintendo DS Homebrew and Aeroplan Versus Air Miles - Comparing Them.

Thoughts From My Life Revenue

Overall, my earnings for February 2008 were $244.46. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets.

• PayU2Blog: $110.00 ($95.00)
• Adsense: $94.29 ($105.82)
• Kontera: $29.67 ($29.00)
• LinkWorth: $10.50 ($10.50)
• Azoogle: $0.00 (new)
• Commission Junction: $0.00 (new)

My Adsense kept up with January's pace and I just missed $100. Pretty crazy to think it is up there now and staying there.

Kontera has set a new record by just a hair when it cleared $29. It is interesting that with all the new traffic, it has not increased as much as Google Adsense has. Nevertheless it provides additional money.

PayU2Blog was also high this month as there a number of bonus assignments handed out for "good performers". Even though there were only 2 pay periods instead of the 3 last month, I was able to beat last months numbers.

I added 2 new revenue sources, but I made nothing from them. Azoogle and Commission Junction set up referral deals with various web sites. The key is that the visitors need to actually "sign up" for you to get paid. The commissions are a lot higher though. No signup for me last month, but I did get a number of clicks. I will try tweaking it this month to see what happens.

Overall, I am quite happy with the month. I wasn't writing as much as I would like, but I was busier as well. Looking forward to March and I have a few interesting articles coming up that are a bit out of the normal subject areas for my site, but oh well.

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I don't know what it is with FeedBurner, but their stats certainly have been going up and down lately. I was over 70 just a couple days ago and now I'm down to 44. I was going up and down by 15 a day for a few weeks as well.

Maybe it is the cutoff time or they have a glitch in their system. Oh well.

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I just received my new Nixon watch in the mail today. It is The Duke and looks pretty cool. It has a brown strap and gold/brown faceplate on it. It looks pretty dressy, but not over the top so it suits my work quite well.

I ended up buying it on eBay for US$145 brand new. This is a fair bit cheaper than the stores. From what I have found, the Nixon Duke retails for around CA$230. It looks like the brown one is at this price and the rest of them are $280 and up.

The Duke is in Nixon's Business Class line of watches. Check out The Duke product page on the Nixon site.

The specs on the website are:

MOVEMENT
2 HAND SUPER THIN MOVEMENT WITH SWISS PARTS AND REAL DIAMOND

CASE
CUSTOM 30 METER STAINLESS STEEL WITH DOMED HARDENED MINERAL CRYSTAL, AND DOUBLE GASKET CROWN.

BAND
CUSTOM DOUBLE TONGUE IMPORTED LEATHER WITH CUSTOM STAINLESS STEEL BARS.

Why I Bought The Duke

The band is nice and wide, which is what I was looking for. The second reason is that the casing and metal is all the darker brushed silver look. I'm not one for bright colors and this does it up just right.

Drawbacks to The Duke

Only one as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't have the hour markers on the face. There are no markings at all except for the hands, Nixon logo, and a little jewel at the bottom. I am getting used to it, but you have to take that extra second to make sure you know what time it is.

There are a few different colors available so check them out on eBay or go to the Nixon site for the details. The best prices are definitely on eBay though.

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I wrote the other day about my increase in advertising, but I have added more in the meantime.

I have signed up with two different affiliate programs. The first is AzoogleAds. This is a company that packages together various affiliate programs and facilitates the deal for you while taking their own cut. Create an Azoogle account and check them out. They have an excellent interface for searching and looking for affiliate programs that much what you need.

The second affiliate network is Commission Junction. They are very similar to Azoogle, but I am finding they have a lot more selection to choose from. This is especially true for some of my search criteria which is for more specific traffic from a region.

Pick Your Affiliates Carefully

Remember, be aware of what kind of traffic is coming to your site. Some of my more popular articles are Aeroplan and Airmiles related. These are Canadian airline programs so 99% of my traffic is coming from Canada.

Some of my other more popular articles are technical and troubleshooting related, so having support services affiliates might be a better option. Regardless, it takes time and experimentation. I am ussing a few different affiliates from both Azoogle and Commission Junction and am in the process of testing them out.

Look for results in the next couple weeks.

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This month is going to be a focus on advertising and increasing the monetization of this site. I am clearing 500 unique visitors a day and 800 page views a day. This isn't huge traffic, but it is fairly steady.

In John Chow's January 2008 earnings, he was able to make around 10 cents ($0.10) per page view. That is huge. My January page views were around 20,000. With his rate of return that should have earned me $2,000.

I have two main problems when trying to copy what he has done:

• He has an enormous amount of private ad sales revenue.
• He belongs to three ad networks that I cannot qualify for until I have higher traffic. That is Text Link Ads, ReviewMe, and TTZ Media.

In the meantime, I have added BidVertiser to the bottom of my pages and I am keeping an eye on AzoogleAds to see if there are good affiliate programs that I can use. I have added links for 3 of them in my side menu bar and see if I can get any action out of them.

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