$1 A Day

One Dollar A Day - New Blog

2006-01-17T19:13:00.000Z

Just to let anyone who still checks this blog know that I have set up my new One Dollar A Day blog where I'll be talking about all my online money making adventures, not just AdSense scrapper sites!

End of Challenge, End of This Blog!

2006-01-01T17:40:00.000Z

Yes, I'm sad to say that it's the end of the challenge - so how did I do...?

Target: Create 100 websites FAILED (only 65 created)

Target: Earn $100 per day from these FAILED (averaged around $20 per day)

In terms of the challenge then, I well and truely FAILED! Looking back, I was probably a little naive about how hard this was going to be and how much time I actually had to dedicate to the challenge.

So what have I got out of the challenge?

Well first things first... $376 profit from my AdSense sites alone!
Discovered that it is possible to make good money by churning out niche portals.
Learnt an ongoing way to bring in a decent extra income each month.
Learnt techniques have helped me make more money out of my content sites.
Set up two AIS type sites that are bringing in a small but decent income.
Finally...I've re-discovered my appetite for making money on the net :)

The end of the challenge also signals the end of this blog. I got a bit bored just writing about my Adsense exploits towards the end and I'm sick of Blogger - the last straw came a few weeks back when they added the CAPTCHA to this blog :(

I'll be setting up a more general Wordpress blog on my own domain to keep everyone up to date with my online money making adventures (Adsense and AIS) as well as whatever else I feel like writing about...details to be posted here when it's ready.

Until then, thanks for following my challenge and here's to a happy, healthy & prosperous year in 2006 for us all :)

Other AIS Roundup

2006-01-01T17:27:00.000Z

As regular readers will know, I started branching out into other types of sites than just pure adsense portals.

RSSG Site (launched at end of Nov)
2 x installation orders @ $10 = $20
3 x templates @ $9.95 = $29.85
3 x template packs @ $14.95 = $44.85
Total income = $94.70

Site for Burts Challenge (launched mid Dec)
1 x ebook @ 14.99 - $14.99
AdSense = $8.34
Total income = $23.33

The cost of setting up these was just the cost of the domains.
I did spend a fair amount of time writing the ebook and designing the site for burts challenge and also creating the templates for the RSSG site, but the only ongoing work is doing the RSSG installations (5 mins a pop). In all other aspects, these are true AIS's :)

I'm going to be concentrating my efforts on these sort of sites in the immediate future...in fact I have several ideas in the pipeline and need to decide which to develop first!

I have also persuaded a friend of mine to write 2 ebooks for which I will get 50% of the profits for doing the web marketing...1 of these ebooks in particular I'm convinced will be a great earner...just waiting for her to write them!

December AdSense Figures

2006-01-01T17:16:00.000Z

My AdSense earnings for December were slightly down on November at $589.97 from 65 sites (compared to $629.97 in Nov) but still healthy. I put the drop down to a combination of not building new sites on a regular basis and the poor Christmas period I experienced. I also built a big bunch of sites in mid-December which are not making money yet.

Current total = -$213.93

December AdSense earnings = $589.97

Running total = $376.04

It's nice to be firmly in profit and to know that anything I earn above my monthly costs (KWA membership, hosting & domain fees) is pure profit :)

Burts Challenge - 2 Weeks In

2005-12-29T14:58:00.000Z

Just a quick update on the brand new site I entered into burts challenge:

Site is fully indexed in all major search engines :)
1 ebook sale @ $14.99
AdSense earnings of $5.63
No Clickbank affiliate sales yet

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how things are going especially so early on. That said, I've no idea how all the other entrants are doing!

Xmas AdSense Nosedive!

2005-12-28T14:25:00.000Z

Just getting back into the swing of things after taking some time off for Christmas and I logged in to check my AdSense...oh dear!

For Christmas day and the two days either side, my earnings took a huge nose dive to almost half of my usual daily average. The worst day was Christmas Eve when I earned just $6.50 in AdSense.

Looks like a lot of people were doing the same as me and having a break from their computers - can't blame them really!

The good news is that things are picking back up again :)

World Cup!

2005-12-19T20:03:00.001Z

I think I said previously that I would be setting aside some of my AdSense income to pay for my trip to the World Cup in Germany next year.

Well, I have just applied for tickets through the England supporters club and, if I get tickets to all the matches I applied for at the highest ticket categories, it's going to cost me a cool £800!! (that's about $1400). And that's just for tickets, no flights or accomodation.

The way I see it though is that the WC is not likely to be back in Europe for probably 12 years. The next one is in South Africa and the one after that will be in South America (i.e. Brazil). Add to that the fact that England have probably the best chance of winning it since I've been alive and I just have to go to Germany...

Best get building some more AdSensers quick!

Pureprofile

2005-12-19T19:47:00.000Z

Since I last posted about Pureprofile, I have made £25 just for viewing a few websites and answering a couple of questions. I'll be withdrawing this as an HMV voucher and using it to pick up some new CD's in the post-christmas sales :)

Sign up now for Pureprofile and get earning - it's easy money with no obligation to buy anything!

General Update

2005-12-19T19:34:00.000Z

My AdSense earnings have slipped quite a bit recently, but I'm still averaging around $20 a day for December. This seems to be down to 2 main factors:

1. Me not building enough sites! (The 20 I put up a couple of weeks ago aren't making any money yet.)
2. Finding out on Dec 16 that RSStoBlog had stopped posting to my blogs on Dec 8!! This is now fixed and my earnings are on the rise again.

Overall, it's quite clear that I'm nowhere near achieving my goal of having 100 sites earning an average of $1 per day. It's a shame, but I am still earning some decent extra income. Remember I have broken even, so anything above my monthly costs is pure profit :)

My other AIS (templates for RSSG) is not setting the world on fire but is chugging along with $40 of sales over the past 3 weeks. Nothing to write home about really but I will create some "prettier" templates in the new year to try and boost things.

Finally, my entry into burts contest is currently being promoted in an attempt to get it listed in the search engines quickly. It seems to be working as googlebot has notched up 141 hits already :)

My Site for Burts Challenge Is Up and Running!

2005-12-17T18:18:00.000Z

My site for burts challenge is up and running :)

It's a hybrid of a content site with an ebook I wrote for sale and a pure adsense niche portal with some clickbank thrown in for good measure! Hopefully, this three pronged atack will be a winner...

Internet Marketing = BS

2005-12-13T23:15:00.000Z

I'm sick of internet marketing. I'll illustrate why with two examples:

1. Sales Letters

I can't think of a worse way to sell a product. If I ever come across a sales letter, I immediately close the browser or click my back button. I just don't trust them. I don't believe anything written in them. The question I have is do these sales letter pages work on ordinary members of the public? Or do they just sucker in others playing in the internet marketing game? They must work at some level, otherwise people surely wouldn't continue to use them. Or is it just that they are too lazy to put together a nice, well written website to showcase the product? That can't be the answer either since these sales letters are usually pages and pages long so they must have taken time to put together.

2. Follow Up E-mail Campaigns

A real life example for you from a (free) product I downloaded a few weeks ago. I had already signed up to receive notification when this product would be available to download, so the first e-mail was to let me know the product was available to download:

Not too long ago, you signed up to receive priority notice about the release of the desktop application, httPulse.

With the promise of knowing the instant it was released,
we just uploaded the download file about 5 minutes ago to
the server and it's ready for you to install.

Head on over to the following URL and pick up your copy:

http://www.******.com/

(or cut and paste that link into your browser)

Can't wait to hear what you think.

Great, so I went ahead and downloaded the product. Exactly 15 minutes later, I received this e-mail:

Just wanted check in and make sure that you downloaded
httPulse okay which you requested a few days ago.

Did you open it up, install it and start using it?

If so, way to go!

We're already getting rave reviews from people...

So, I requested to download the product a few days ago did I? No! You're already getting rave reviews...15 minutes after making the product available to download are you? No!

This second e-mail was clearly meant to arrive a couple of days after the first one and it just goes to show you what BS they contain.

Anyway, rant over!

Forgotten Money!

2005-12-12T21:25:00.000Z

I just logged into my Clickbank account as I will be putting some aff links on the site I enter into burts challenge and found I have $21.24 sitting in there from one sale in November - bonus :) I had totally forgotten that I had put clickbank on a couple of my early portal sites!

Monthly Costs

2005-12-09T16:00:00.000Z

Just a quick post as I forgot to add this in:

Current total = -$143.98

Hosting = $12.95

KWA Membership = $57.00

Running total = -$213.93*

*December AdSense earnings to be added in at the end of the month.

Burt's Challenge - $100 Prize

2005-12-09T15:55:00.000Z

Burt has setup an AIS challenge over on his blog.

I will be entering with an idea for an ebook that I've had at the back of my mind for a few weeks.

The challenge starts on 16 December and runs until the end of January. The winner is simply the person who makes the most money (turnover). Take a look at burt's blog for full info and rules.

Fan Sites = Waste of Time (Financially)

2005-12-05T21:38:00.000Z

I wrote a while back asking for ideas about how to monetize a "fan" type site I run that was getting good traffic. That particular site is now annoying me even more. Traffic is on a steady rise, currently at around 200 uniques per day...but it is still earning next to nothing!

I did finally get accepted onto the iTunes affiliate program and have made 6p from 1 sale! Via Amazon, I have made 21p from 1 sale.

I think this site proves 3 things:

There is no money to be made from these sites
Country specific affiliate schemes seem to be a waste of time when your target audience is global and most visitors are not from the UK (I'm sure I would be making more if I was an Amazon/iTunes US affiliate)
I can build good content sites and get them to the top of the search engines

I'll be mostly focusing on point 3 then ;)

I'm going to give it another month and, if things don't improve, most of the affiliate stuff will be taken off the site to make it look cleaner.

20 New RSSG Sites Up - 65 In Total Now

2005-12-04T21:31:00.000Z

After recovering from my hangover (as a result of the staff xmas outing!), I spent today getting the 20 RSSG sites I've been talking about online.

I had to upgrade my hosting account, so this has increased my monthly costs by $10 (not too bad) but I'm now up to a healthy sounding 65 sites.

Current total = -$86.38

20 x domains @ $2.88 = $57.60

Running total = -$143.98*

*December AdSense earnings to be added in at the end of the month.

Break-Even Point Reached!

2005-12-04T21:27:00.000Z

My AdSense earnings for December so far have taken me over the $86.38 that I was still in the red at the end of November...anything I earn now above my monthly costs (KWA membership, hosting & domains) is pure profit :D

45 Sites Up

2005-12-02T00:42:00.000Z

I made 5 new sites tonight, so I'm up to 45 now...almost half way!

As I said a couple of posts ago, I have have another 35 keyword lists sitting here waiting for sites to be built around them. The next 5 will be built using NPB as usual, then I'm going to put a batch of 20 up using RSSG, then the remaining 10 from this bunch using NPB again.

Current aim is to get at least the first 5 NPB sites and the 20 RSSG sites up over the next 10 days. I have another week off work coming up after that, so the plan is to blitz as many more sites as possible during that week and hopefully get the 100 up before Xmas!

Current total = -$71.98

5 x domains @ $2.88 = $14.40

Running total = -$86.38

First Google Payment (Spent It Already!)

2005-12-01T20:42:00.000Z

So, I was checking my bank account this morning to see if I'd been paid...and I saw a deposit from Google for my October AdSense earnings...a nice little surprise!

This evening, the shops were open for late night shopping and I promptly spent this money on clothes...you've got to treat yourself sometimes haven't you?!

November Round Up

2005-12-01T20:30:00.000Z

November was a great month with AdSense earnings of $629.97 from a total of 40 sites (some of which haven't started making money yet though).

While that's an average of $21 per day (which I'm well pleased with), I'm still quite a bit short of my $1 per site per day challenge.

Current total = -$701.95

November AdSense earnings = $629.97

Running total = -$71.98

If my earnings continue at their current rate, I should be at the break-even point by Dec 5th.

Plans for December are to get building - I've been pretty slack this month but I have done a lot of groundwork...20 keyword lists ready to build sites with NPB and 20 keyword lists ready to build sites with RSSG. This will take me up to 80 sites...approaching that 100 mark.

The trouble is, these sites are going to take at least 2-4 weeks to start earning money, so it's looking quite likely that I'm going to fail my challenge. That said, I will have 100 sites up by the new year!!

Best Ever AdSense Day

2005-11-29T19:12:00.000Z

Had my best ever Adsense day yesterday with earnings of $41.89 :)

Strangely, burt has reported the same thing - I wonder if this was a more widespread trend - anyone else experience the same?

Adsense Earnings - Past 7 Days

2005-11-28T18:12:00.000Z

The past week has seen earnings of $174.89 - a nice increase on the past couple of weeks.

This seems to be due mainly to newer sites starting to make money and greater consistency in my daily earnings - average daily income over the past 7 days has been $24.98 :)

A Brief History Of My Online Money Making Life!

2005-11-28T17:40:00.000Z

Corby posted a comment on one of my earlier posts yesterday asking how I got started in the world of making money online and AIS. If anyone is interested, here's a potted history of my online money making life...

After graduating university, I temped for a year before before going self-employed with a graphic designer friend of mine. During this time, I got involved with osCommerce and taught myself basic PHP. My first good money-maker was a site offering osCommerce help/installation/etc. However this required some work and also involved clients :( !

My first true AIS was an osCommerce templates shop (built using osCommerce of course!). I was one of the first to get into this market and it proved a nice little earner despite having only a few designs for sale. The site enjoyed top ranking in Google for the term "oscommerce templates" for several years and this drove the majority of traffic to the site.

About 2 years ago I then took the decision to get a "real" job (mainly for financial certainty) and shortly after this I sold the osCommerce templates site for a tidy sum. Since then (until 2 months ago anyway) I haven't been making any money online - I have just been working on a few hobby content sites.

What got me back into the whole online money making thing was reading about burts experiences. The whole niche portal/AdSense earning thing sounded just too easy so I decided to take the plunge and give it a go...low and behold, it does actually work (not that it's easy though!).

As you can see from my RSSG post, I've also started branching out into other AIS's. When this challenge is over, I'll be concentrating more on AIS's rather than pure AdSense earnings - templates, ebooks and that sort of thing.

$500 For November

2005-11-26T22:03:00.000Z

Well, I'm pretty damned chuffed - I've topped the $500 mark in AdSense earnings during November already :)

If things carry on at this rate, I should be in profit in roughly a couple of weeks time...that'll be a nice position to be in!

RSSG - Really Simple Site Generator

2005-11-25T21:05:00.000Z

Now, this is not part of the Adsense challenge (and any earnings will not be included here!) but I thought I'd let you know about an AIS I've set up.

It involves a free site generator called RSSG (Really Simple Site Generator). This script was released a few months ago, but the original site then vanished. I set up a site offering it for download and have since added a few extras to it - an installation service and, today, some templates.

I've already had one person pay for an installation (which takes all of 5 mins!) and hopefully the templates will take off too :) The installation service isn't automated but, as I say, it takes 5 mins per site. The templates are totally automated using PayPal IPN and an instant download script.

I'll keep you updated on how it goes...

Week 6 Earnings

2005-11-21T21:37:00.000Z

Over the last week, I made $141.84 in AdSense.

Again this is in line with, but slightly up on, the past couple of weeks and as expected since the sites I have built recently have not started making money yet.

I've noticed some newer sites are starting to make money, so hopefully this upward trend will continue for the remainder of November as these start to pick up even more :)

Google Just Gave Me Some Money!

2005-11-19T20:47:00.000Z

I stopped using Adwords at the end of last month as my sites were earning money without using it. However, I just received this e-mail from Google:

The Google AdWords Team wants to help you make the most of your advertising experience, so we would like to offer you a 25.00 GBP AdWords credit...

Well thank you very much Google! I'll be using this to hopefully kick-start a couple of my sites that haven't taken off and to try and get Google to index some that it hasn't seemed too keen on listing so far :)

Adsense For November To Date

2005-11-17T22:18:00.000Z

Adsense earnings for November are over $300 already and we're only half way through the month...fingers crossed this continues for the remainder of November as the 60 day interest free period on the credit card I used to buy NPB & RSStoBlog is coming to an end lol!

40 Sites Up

2005-11-17T22:14:00.000Z

Just a quick one to say I've now got 40 websites up and running. I also have my next batch of 10 niches researched and picked - I'm finding building 10 sites at a time to be quite a good way of doing things. Once I have these next 10 up, I'll be half way to the 100 site target :)

Current total = -$673.15

10 x domains @ $2.88 = $28.80

Running total = -$701.95*

*Adsense income to be added in at the end of each month.

How To Monetize A "Fan" Type Site

2005-11-17T00:08:00.000Z

Here's the problem...I have a proper content site based on the music from a popular TV show. I'm getting over 2000 unique visitors a month on it (most of this is highly targetted SE traffic). I cannot make money from it!

AdSense doesn't work - the adverts served are largely irrelevant and low CPC.

I have Amazon links but these are making nothing and we all know the Amazon affiliate program is rubbish anyway! I've tried becoming an iTunes affiliate, but my application keeps getting refused with no explanation :(

I cannot think of any other ways to monetize the site (other than selling it lol!).

Anyone have any ideas? Or should I resign myself to the fact that these types of sites do not make money and I should simply keep it as a hobby site? I don't mind doing this, but it is frustrating having such a successful site which I have spent hours building and getting good SE positioning but that doesn't make anything when an ugly portal with very few visitors makes me a decent return...

Target Reached!

2005-11-15T22:07:00.000Z

Well not quite...but yesterday I reached my target of earning an average of $1 per day per site for the first time!

With 30 sites up, my Adsense earnings were $31.75.

Now I just need to up this to the 100 site mark and the challenge will be met...easier said than done though!

Pure Profile

2005-11-14T16:24:00.000Z

I've been a member of an interesting site called Pure Profile for about a year now and I highly recommend that you sign up. This is how it works:

You sign up and complete your profile.
You receive e-mails every now and again inviting you to view marketing campaigns from companies that have matched your profile (these take anywhere from 30secs to a couple of mins to view and complete the questions).
You get paid to do this. That's right, you get paid to view these marketing campaigns!

Typically you earn £1 for each campaign you view and complete. You don't have to buy anything...you just get paid for your time and feedback. NO CATCHES!

Over the past year I've earnt about £30 which I've withdrawn in the form of CD-WOW vouchers :) However, today alone, I have been sent 8 campaigns from broadband providers to respond to!! £8 added to my account, thank you. The current retailers you can redeem your earnings at are:

HMV
Waterstones
Boots
Arcadia (Topshop etc)
Odeon
or you can now also get a cheque if you prefer!

They now have a neat new feature that allow you to create pages if you are thinking of buying something to attract potential marketers to you and thus up your earnings ;)

Now, this isn't going to clear your overdraft, but a few extra CDs a year are always welcome...take a look at Pure Profile for all the information.

Week 5 Roundup

2005-11-14T10:33:00.000Z

Over the last 7 days, I made $123.61 in AdSense earnings - an average of $17.66 per day.

These are very similar results to week 4 which is no surprise since I haven't increased my portfolio of sites recently!

Off Topic - Content Site...Can Anyone Help?

2005-11-13T21:27:00.000Z

In between everything else, I'm also working on a new content site. The site will be database driven, offering users the ability to tap in their postcode and it will return the nearest 5 pubs (for example). This part is all set up, coded and working.

As part of this, I want to offer a premium rate SMS "find your nearest" service so that users can send a text containing a keyword to a shortcode. The nearest pub (or whatever) will be automatically returned based on their location via a premium rate (say £1) text message.

Now, here's the problem...finding a company that offer this service for a reasonable price! iTagg offer this service but want close to £2k per year for it. They only other company I've found is called waymobile, but they have not responded to my e-mail :S

Does anybody know of another company that can offer this type of setup at a more reasonable rate? Thanks!

I've Been Poisoned!

2005-11-13T00:26:00.000Z

Unfortunately I've had food poisoning this week :( I was going to use the time off work as an opportunity to build more sites but it knocked me sideways more than I thought and I ended up spending most of the last 3 days in bed drinking water and eating dry toast!

Fortunately it seems to have passed now and I've spent some of today preparing keyword lists ready for another spate of building. I've got 10 good new lists ready to build sites from which will take me up to 40 sites :)

On the earnings side of things, I've already broken the $200 mark for November, so things are still looking good. The usual end of week update will be posted on Monday...

Week 4 - Ticking Along Nicely

2005-11-08T22:51:00.000Z

First of all, again, apologies for the lack of updates. My real job and life are taking up a lot of my time at the moment (which is good in one way, but bad for portal building and blog writing!).

So, to the detail, I have a total of 30 sites up now. In the first 7 days of November, I made $119.70 in Adsense income - an average of $17.10 per day.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how things are going - particularly the fact that the Adsense income is coming from a broad range of my sites and not one or two heavy earners.

The only thing I'm not happy with is the speed at which I'm building, but I'm just going to have to live with that for the time being until things quieten down at work.

Current total = -$596.80

5 x domains @ $2.88 = $14.40

KA Membership = $57.00 (monthly)

Hosting = $4.95 (monthly)

Running total = -$673.15*

*Adsense income to be added in at the end of each month.

October Financial Roundup

2005-11-01T11:06:00.000Z

Current total = -$780.83

October Adwords expenditure = £6.30 = $11.15

October Adsense income = $195.18

Running total = -$596.80

25 Sites Up

2005-11-01T11:03:00.000Z

Yesterday I put up 3 new sites taking the total to 25 - 1/4 of my target :)

The last two days also saw my Adsense earnings climb to over $20 per day. In my next post I will be updating the financial position with the October Adsense earnings and Adwords expenditure.

3 x domains @ $2.88 = $8.64

Running total: -$780.83

Week 3 - A Mixed Bag

2005-10-30T20:29:00.000Z

Well, this has been a week of mixed fortunes:

On the downside, I returned to work and have done 7 x 10 hour days on the trot. The result of this was that that I didn't exactly feel like spending more time working when I got home and only managed to produce 2 new sites (pretty pathetic!). I neglected this blog all week too, sorry!

On the upside, my existing sites have been performing very nicely and have been earning me an average of $15 per day over the past 7 days :)

I'm now happy that the technique does work - I just have to up my output. I'm off work the next 2 days, so I'm going to spend the remainder of today compiling keyword lists and the next 2 days cranking out sites...

2 x domains @ $2.88 = $5.76

Running total: -$772.19*

*Adwords expenditure and Adsense income to be added in at the end of the month.

Sunday - Record Day!

2005-10-24T19:20:00.000+01:00

Sunday was my record day in Adsense earnings so far with a grand total of $15.53!

No idea what happened to cause this spike but, hey, I'm not complaining. Earnings for today are back down and look to be more in line with what I had been seeing before yesterday though.

Adsense - Last 7 Days

2005-10-23T19:34:00.000+01:00

Makes encouraging reading... :)

End of Week 2 Round Up

2005-10-23T19:10:00.000+01:00

Two weeks into the challenge and I now have 20 sites up and running, so I'm 1/5 of the way to my target of 100 sites...not bad going considering how little I did this week

Another positive side effect I have noticed resulting from re-designing my templates is that the website files now take up significantly less space. This has several benefits:

Quicker to ZIP the files up
Quicker to upload the ZIP file to my hosting account
Websites should use less bandwidth

I've also uploaded a couple of sites generated by a different piece of software to see how these perform compared to the NPB sites.

Back to work at my full time job tomorrow :( Hopefully I will be able to keep building at a decent rate, but we will have to see how things go!

3 x domains @ $2.88 = $8.64

Running total: -$766.43*

*Adwords expenditure and Adsense income to be added in at the end of the month.

Day 12 - Challenge Roundup

2005-10-21T17:04:00.000+01:00

I've been a bit slack in building this week due to having too many other (more enjoyable!) things to do.

That said, I do now have a total of 17 websites up and running but I'm still way behind my target of building 2 new sites per day.

The first few sites I built last week are starting to slowly get indexed and are earning a steady stream of income of around $5 per day over the past 4 days. Traffic to them is still very low so the CTR is quite high which I am very pleased with. In theory, as more pages get indexed and they start getting more traffic, income should start to rise accordingly although I do expect the CTR to drop off.

5 x domains @ $2.88 = $14.40

Running total: -$757.79 (Adwords expenditure and Adsense income to be added in at the end of the month)

Templates...argh!

2005-10-19T17:20:00.000+01:00

I spent a bit (well a lot!) of time today changing my NPB template.

I thought it was going to be a quick job to chop and change some HTML about. How wrong I was! The code in the standard templates is absolutely dreadful and I ended up writing almost every page from scratch! I've ended up with something I'm happy with now though - it has much simpler code and I've removed a load of the extra features that NPB creates.

Why do this you may be asking? Well, it's rumoured that search engines can identify these generated sites from the "footprint" they leave. By using your own template, you have less chance of falling foul of this detection and therefore staying in the listing longer.

AdWords

2005-10-19T17:18:00.000+01:00

I've started a little experiment with AdWords in an attempt to drive a bit of traffic to my sites before they get indexed. It's too early to draw any conclusions yet, but I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Clicks!

2005-10-19T17:04:00.000+01:00

I've been getting a few clicks over the past few days! The past two days have both brought in just over $6 and I'm currently on $2 for today.

One thing I've noticed is that I barely earn much during the day (in the UK) but when America wakes up, that is when things start to pick up. Quite frustrating in a way, but nice to wake up and check the previous day to see it is much higher than when you went to bed!

Anyway, I'll knock my Adsense income off the running total at the end of each month.

Life - Make Sure You Have One!

2005-10-18T18:28:00.000+01:00

I took a bit of a break from the computer yesterday afternoon and most of today to actually have a life! Went to the gym, out on the mountain bike, did a bit of shopping and cleaned the flat.

I'm going to plan the rest of my holiday a bit better so I don't end up just sitting in front of the computer all day (as I have been doing!) but still have time to build a couple of sites per day.

Technical Difficulties

2005-10-17T20:44:00.000+01:00

Technical Difficulties - it's the name of a snowboarding film but also what I've been experiencing today. First up were FTP problems which mysteriously resolved themselves after an e-mail to my host. Now, more seriously, Google seems to have lost my AdSense account! I kid you not, when I try to login, it says that an AdSense account does not exist for my login. I've e-mailed Google, but no reply as yet...

Dan Joins The Challenege

2005-10-17T11:51:00.000+01:00

Dan has also joined the challenge but with a slightly different approach:

I've decided to use only programs that I create, open-source software and free keyword research tools.

It will be very interesting to see if this can be done without spending money on software!

End of Week 1 Round Up

2005-10-17T01:21:00.000+01:00

It's the end of the first week of the challenge and I have a total of 12 sites up and running.

There have been only a few clicks so far - certainly nothing to write home about. The sites are still being crawled and more pages are gradually being listed by the search engines.

All in all, I'm quite chuffed with how the first week has gone and everything seems to be moving nicely in the right direction :)

4 x domains @ 2.88 = $11.52

Running total: $743.39

boo Joins the Challenge

2005-10-16T14:52:00.000+01:00

Excellent news - barefoot_boo has decided to join me in the challenge. She is at about the same stage to me but using slightly different tools.

It will be great to have a friendly person along on the ride to bounce ideas around with and to keep each other motivated :)

Stop Press - Limited KA Memberships!

2005-10-15T00:13:00.000+01:00

The guy who runs the Keyword Avalanche site (the forum I joined that I am always mentioning) has decided to cap the membership at 500 people, not the original 1000. Apparantly there are 496 current members, so get in quick if you were thinking of joining!

When the membership reaches 500, a waiting list system will be in place and, once a month, any spaces created by people not renewing their membership will be filled from that.

These forums really are a goldmine of useful information for both beginers and experienced site builders. You will find the very latest tricks and techniques posted as well as help with software etc.

Day 5 - Total of 8 Sites Now Up

2005-10-14T18:40:00.000+01:00

Five days into the challenge and I now have a total of 8 sites up and running. That means I'm averaging about 2 per day when I have worked (remember I didn't do anything on Wednesday). If I keep going at this rate, I should have all 100 sites done by the end of November which will leave the whole of December for them all to get into the search engines and start earning money for my end of year deadline. Of course, I'm not going to build 2 sites everyday from now on, but I will try to keep to this average.

4 x domains @ $2.88 = $11.52

Running total: $731.87

Day 5 - Promising Signs

2005-10-14T10:26:00.000+01:00

Well, I can't quite believe it...a site I uploaded 3 days ago is now completely indexed in Google!! I just did a "site:" search on it and it returned all 950 pages. It's encouraging to see things like this happening as it means I must be doing something right.

The strange thing is that other sites I have built in exactly the same way are not indexed yet. However, I have just been checking out the stats for my other sites and it looks like they are all getting hammered by bots from Google, MSN and Yahoo...which is nice.

Day 4 - Keeping The Faith

2005-10-13T15:08:00.000+01:00

Excellent win by England last night, but the evening KO meant I didn't get home until the wee hours of this morning which has had the knock on effect of me getting up late and not really doing that much on the challenge so far today!

A post by barefoot_boo over at DDN really resonated with me today. She is just embarking on a similar effort to me in trying to earn some decent money from Adsense. I have also been thinking of reaching a certain number of sites (say 25), then taking stock of things. By this time, my first sites should be in the search engines and I will be able to see if all this does really work. Something I will ponder over the next few days.

Let's get a little bit of perspective though...this is only day 4 after all! I don't expect to see any return from a site I build for at least a month. Part of the reason I started this blog was to write down things like this and get them clear in my own head. It would be easy just to sit at my PC and get disheartened, particularly if I was just concentrating on my running total of money spent!

Right, I'd better get on and build some more sites...

Planning For The Next Couple of Days

2005-10-11T21:58:00.000+01:00

As we approach the end of day 2, I currently have 4 sites up and running - not bad for my first two days I hope you'll agree.

I'm going to spend the rest of this evening doing keyword research and I'm aiming to compile keyword lists for another 4 keywords so that, come Thursday, I can rattle through and build 4 more sites.

No building will be taking place tomorrow as I'm off to Manchester to watch England v Poland!

Do I Have A Job?

2005-10-11T18:56:00.000+01:00

I had a question from a reader asking if I have a job since I seem to be posting throughout the day. The answer is yes, I have a full time job (got to pay the rent and bills) but I am currently on 2 weeks holiday.

I deliberately timed the start of the challenge to coincide with the start of my holiday in order that I could spend as much time as possible on it to begin with. In fact, I actually forfeited a holiday abroad in order to be able to pay for the software etc to do this challenge properly. Madness? Maybe! If I'm successful, I'll be going on many more holidays than I would otherwise have done though...

Day 2 - Site No.4 Is Up!

2005-10-11T18:52:00.000+01:00

OK, site number 4 is now up and running.

I have also spent a bit of time today going back and tweaking the previous 3 sites I already made using some tips picked up from the forum I joined.

To save time in the future, I also modified the templates I'm using to accomodate these changes so any sites I build from now on will automatically include them.

1 x domain = $2.88

Running total: $720.35

Day 2 - Another New Site Up

2005-10-11T15:17:00.000+01:00

My 3rd site is now up and running and I'm planning to do at least 2 more today since I know I will be unable to build any tomorrow.

I have drafted a step-by-step guide to help me build each site. This should help create consistency in my builds and ensure I don't miss any vital steps. I will be refining this guide with each build.

My keyword research is taking quite a bit longer than I had estimated so I will be looking into ways to speed this part of the build up.

1 x domain = $2.88

Running total: $717.47

Day 1 - Two Sites Up Already!

2005-10-10T15:14:00.000+01:00

Phew...my first two websites are done and uploaded - YES!

I used one of the pieces of sotware to generate these sites and it worked a treat. I also added in some modifications found on the forum I joined and some custom changes of my own. The site generator software is going to be well worth the money as there is no way I could have hand made these sites with 800+ pages in such a short space of time.

Now, I just need to wait for them to get indexed by the search engines and hopefully they will start earning me some money. The other piece of software I purchased should help the sites get spidered and indexed very quickly, so I will be monitoring to see if this software does what it promised.

It was very hard work and very confusing getting these two done. However, even after 2 sites, I can see a system emerging in my building. I will be trying to streamline and smooth out this system as far as I can over the next few sites in order to be able to build quicker and smarter with as little manual work as possible.

I had to spend a bit more money to get these up and running:

2 x domains @ $2.88 each = $5.76

Running total: $714.59

Day 1 - Information Overload

2005-10-10T12:04:00.000+01:00

I'm currently suffering from severe information overload! The forum I joined contains so much useful information that my brain is not able to absorb it all this fast.

At least it looks like at least part of my money was well spent. This forum contains huge amounts of advice and "inside information" from these marketing gurus who are already making big money. It has beginner guides, step by step instructions, video tutorials and software advice/help alongside the usual general discussion you would expect from a forum. The best thing is that the membership is limited to only 1000 members, so I'm glad I got in there!

Some of the stories I have read are really inspiring but there are also stories from people who are not seeing the huge earnings and success they were clearly expecting. I hope my modest target of $1 a day per site will keep my own expectations at a reasonable level as, after all, targets have to be achievable. Testing, but achievable.

Anyway, time for a break!

Day 1 - Preparations

2005-10-10T10:05:00.000+01:00

Day one and I have had to spend some money :(

Software: $644
Domain: $2.88
Hosting: $4.95 (monthly)
Website membership: $57 (monthly)

Total: $708.83

Running total: $708.83

Ouch! But remember, I am trying to earn at least $100 per day, so these costs should be paid off in just over a week if I achieve my target.

What's This All About Then?

2005-10-09T21:29:00.000+01:00

I've been noticing that a few people on the web seem to be earning some serious money by doing not alot of work. And I want a piece of the action.

I was first alerted to this by some posts on a forum I read from time to time called DDN Cafe. A guy on there by the name of burt (read his blog here) was always going on about Automated Income Streams (AIS) and how much he was earning from them. As the name suggests, the idea of these income streams is that they require very little work i.e. you set them up, sit back and watch the cash roll in. Sounds great doesn't it?

A small part of burt's income was coming from the Google Adsense program. Researching more into things, I found that some "internet marketing gurus" were earning serious money from Adsense alone. When I say serious, I mean $400+ per site per day. Just, read that again...$400 per website per day...just from people clicking your links! Of course, these "gurus" don't just have one website, they have hundreds, if not thousands of these sites.

It was at the Work Boxers website that I first came across the idea of building 100 websites, each earning $1 per day. It may not sound much, but I'll do the maths for you:

100 sites x $1 x 365 days = $36,500 per year (approx. £20,500 or €30,000).

So I have set myself the challenge of reaching this goal by the end of the year. This year. 2005.

In this blog, I will be recording my progress towards this goal and documenting all the highs and lows that I will inevitably encounter along the way. I hope you will join me on this journey which kicks off tomorrow!