Keeping this in mind, earnings have not seen big headwinds that would prevent profits altogether. Things have held up consistently over time, and I am looking to the new year for another great period of growth for the blog. Hopefully, we can surpass 1,000 RSS readers without any tricks that fake the numbers… as we all want to be as organic as possible. Let’s hope for a bottom in the recessionary global market, and a return of rock-solid profits to the website!

A lot of stuff happened over the past two months, and since I did not post anything in November, I will try to lump both November and December of 2008 into this post to get us all back on track. Jimvesting is now officially a subset of JRR Enterprises LLC., our controlling company that will handle all of the assets I have online. I think that I will make a few posts on registering your own business, since it might be something a lot of us consider in a poor economy (the best time to start a business!). Additionally, posting has slowed a bit over here as I start looking more and more into summer employment and have gotten back to schoolwork once again. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t be productive, eh? Let’s get into it!

October Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 738 Readers
• Average Unique Visitors: 376
• Average Returning Visitors: 58
• Average Page Loads: 528
• Alexa.com Ranking: 90,715
• Technorati Ranking: 14,120
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank:32
• Google PageRank: 3

October Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 800 Readers (+8.40%)
• Average Unique Visitors: 357 (-5.05%)
• Average Returning Visitors: 52 (-10.35%)
• Average Page Loads: 495 (-6.25%)
• Alexa.com Ranking: 56,809 (+37.38%)
• Technorati Ranking: 18,505 (-31.06%)
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 12 (+20)
• Google PageRank: 4 (+1)

Monthly Review and Strategy
Things have been slowing recently, there is no doubt about that. However, as our traffic numbers have largely trended evenly over the past few months, we have picked up on readership and have really started to solidify the name in this industry. In the “make money online” business, getting your name out there is half of the battle. Plus, we haven’t had to throw any ridiculous contest to get our numbers up artificially. I would say that over the last few months, the benefit has been in the form of community… as it seems that a lot of you readers are enjoying the more personal touch that you get here versus other bloggers.

Going forward, I am going to focus on bringing in traffic and revenue from targeted keywords. Additionally, I plan on branching out and once again resume marketing tactics that gave theNetFool.com it’s original run up. Largely, I have just been sitting back and writing for the past few months. This is definitely a benefit for the people that are already here, but doesn’t show much for building up and growing into the future. Therefore, I am going to resume marketing techniques to try and build things up.

Once I have some time, I want to sit down and whip up a new eBook. The problem right now is that I am going through with a bit too many side projects to focus all on this website. The time issue is definitely what is holding the blog back at this point, so I will definitely try and re-prioritize my projects to see if I can’t give a bit more attention.

November & December 2008 Revenue Breakdown
For a revenue breakdown, I figured that it wouldn’t be too useful to break apart the months… although I will do this for the actual earnings numbers. After all, lumping them together will actually give a better representation of where we are getting our earnings. One of the biggest downside impacts on my books has been the fall of former GPT website SWATcash.com. This is a website that I pushed and encouraged here, and drew a significant portion of my revenues from. Fun while it lasted, but now we need a new way to diversity… eh?

The big winner over the past few months has been affiliate referrals, with the two overwhelming leaders being HostGator and Scottrade. One small issue is that Scottrade doesn’t give out cash in their referral program, so all of the “cash” that you see there is simply a monetized reading of the free trades that the referral system gives me each time I refer a new member. HostGator still brings in a great amount of revenue, and I have their web hosting in my best interest going forward.

Private advertising and sponsored reviews have always been consistent, but the trend right now is down as advertisers exit the marketplace in search of safety in what they have. In the recession, companies are struggling to stay afloat… namely a lot of these affiliate marketing firms that I work with. When you cut a budget, you look for the most easily dropped units first… and advertising fits the bill, eh? Still, we saw over $100 per month in ad spending as well as about $75 a month in sponsored reviews. I’d expect this to become stronger as we head deeper  into 2009.

“Get Paid To” websites have been a small contribution to the books. Since the fall of SWATcash, this revenue segment has fallen off a lot, but I still get some decent cash income from Cash Crate and Treasure Trooper. It’s been tough recouping losses here, but with a fresh post on the “Best GPT Sites” I hope to capitalize on some more traffic to these referral cash cows.

Finally, I have seen some solid inflows from private freelancing that has come as a result of theNetFool.com activity. Anything that is stemming from the blog exposure itself definitely should be looped into the earnings, so I have included projects I have done here. Recently, I completed work on a website for an attorney law firm client. Additionally, I have done some “on the fly” graphic design for friends in need to get a bit more revenue.

Going Forward…
Let’s have a look forward, shall we? I see a lot of future revenues coming in from targeted niche content. I have already begun the process of re-marketing things that typically draw a crowd, and it is really just an issue of having some free time to hammer out the actual material that I need to give out to customers.

As far as blog popularity, I already attested to this a bit above; just to reiterate, I feel that Jimvesting.com can bring in increased traffic if I get back on the aggressive marketing front and bring in new crowds. This is, again, a function of me having some time to reach out and network. As it stands, I have done mostly writing, and not enough marketing. So to change this, I am going to go back to basics and start doing things like blog commenting, forum interaction and article marketing.

Let’s look forward to a bright 2009… and stay BULLISH on the net!
-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (October 2008)
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (August 2008)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (September 2008)

With an added attention to quality, and a back-to-basics strategy for pumping out content and grabbing new RSS readers… slow and steady wins the race this time around. Once the economy turns around, maybe my profits will as well, eh?

To be quite clear, October was a slow month… and for good reason! As the global economy shifts downward, we had one of the worst months in the history of the markets. What does this translate to? More work for me. Because of an over-sized portfolio of work, I have to scale down production here at theNetFool.com and focus more on the markets and my own school work. But even without the numbers that we are used to, things held up pretty well! My revenue was jump-started by a few late-term sponsored reviews and a constant stream of referrals to Scottrade.com. In addition, my Alexa.com rankings drastically approved despite lower “real” traffic as measured by StatCounter and Google. I guess sometimes bad news, isn’t all bad. Blogging can be a game of numbers, as you well know. Because of this, I want ot share the statistics before talking further… let’s get into it!

September Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 674 Readers
• Average Unique Visitors: 443
• Average Returning Visitors: 69
• Average Page Loads: 652
• Alexa.com Ranking: 123,750
• Technorati Ranking: 11,137
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 47
• Google PageRank: 3

October Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 738 Readers (+9.50%)
• Average Unique Visitors: 376 (-15.12%)
• Average Returning Visitors: 58 (-15.94%)
• Average Page Loads: 528 (-19.02%)
• Alexa.com Ranking: 90,715 (+26.70%)
• Technorati Ranking: 14,120 (-26.78%)
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank:32
• Google PageRank: 3

Monthly Review and Growth Strategy
Mixed figures once again for October… but this wasn’t a big surprise. I really couldn’t expect much traffic and/or RSS growth in this month because I was not as proactive in my blogging efforts. When I have free time to write something new and exciting, the numbers show… and I had some of my best days ever. However, the overall trend was rough waters because of all the economic activity that has picked up lately. Because of this, my workload has increased and my production has decreased.

Even taking this into account, I was very happy that I finally got to the 700+ RSS range. It’s a much slower process now that I am nearing 1000 readers… and I am actually considering adding Aweber subscriptions to spur some growth. I feel that it really wouldn’t be too hard to create a small campaign with an eBook to get people so sign up to a list, then I can take it up from there. Most of the big bloggers are guys that have been chomping at the bit or have large pockets that I honestly can’t match. Therefore, I believe that staying the course is the right way to fly.

Coming off a horrendous month where I saw my Google Pagerank decline to a 3, and my Alexa.com rating fall through the roof, theNetFool.com had a renaissance (of sorts) and got all the mojo back. It seems like I have hit a trough now, and there should be some nice tailwinds heading forward.

September 2008 Revenue Breakdown By Segment
More nice Microsoft Excel 2008 graphs? …Alright! I have now broken down revenue into five segments. The leader this month was Paid Reviews. This section includes $120 in “on-site” reviews. These are the paid reviews that people come in and buy directly from me. Cheaper, but you gotta do your homework. The remaining $370 was from SponsoredReviews. I have only recently started to use this website… as, generally speaking, review websites tend to be terrible money makers. As it turns out, there are a lot of advertisers out there that were more than willing to pay me $200 a review… so I racked up on my 65% commissions on hiked rates there. I highly suggest that you join to take advantage of similar deals that are going through every day.

Around a quarter of my revenues from the month came in from Scottrade, my stock market broker of choice. I am actually not so sure how these referrals continue to flow through… since I am not actively promoting them… but hey, I’ll take it. If you want to put money into the stock market, I have a nice write up on the best stock brokers of 2008 which you should check out.

Looking in the 20% range, advertising sales were relatively stable. In reality, things weren’t as steady as they look! I actually increased my rates considerably and was seeing demand for them (still a bargain!). However, my OIO Publisher system kept my ads on far beyond when they expired… we’re talking 1-month even… os I had to reset things to get it all sorted out. Because of this, I missed out on a lot of potential revenue coming my way.

• Advertising Sales ($172.50)
  • 125×125 Ad Blocks – $120
  • 468×60 Ad Block – $45
  • Text Link Ads – $7.50
• Sponsored Reviews ($487.25)
  • On-Site Reviews – $120
  • SponsoredReviews.com reviews – $367.25
• GPT Website Referrals ($53.25)
  • SWATcash Referrals – $50.12
  • CashCrate Referrals – $3.13
• Misc. Commissions ($56.50)
  • Market Leverage Commission – $18.00
  • OIO Publisher Commission – $23.50
  • eBook Sales – $15.00
• Scottrade Referrals ($252.00)
  • Scottrade – $252
• Total October Blog & Blog-Referred Revenue = $1,021.50

The biggest driver this month? A late flurry of sponsored reviews from SponsoredReviews.com. Surely, it wasn’t my saving grace, as other sources of revenue like Scottrade, Private Ads and GPT websites have consistently brought in revenue without me lifting a finger. The amazing thing about this blogging revenue is that it was done on minimal work… and it probably would have been similar if I had ignored the blog entirely. This is the advantage of blogging for money online.

November 2008 Outlook

As we wind down the year, the Net Fool’s October Spectacular is almost over and I am giving away a great shot to win a Nintendo Wii, a Flip Mino or some more great prizes. I do not have a competition lined up afterward, so I might have to think about one in order to get the wheels in motion. Contests have been a great driver for the blog to this date, and I feel like it is where the growth is at. Especially in a down economy, if people can win free stuff by blogging on the internet… they are probably going to try. This makes internet marketing deals highly sought after, and very hot.

It would be great if I could break the 800 level this month, but it is going to be tough. My goal will be pinpointed at that 800 number, and I hope to get close by being a bit more proactive in my writing… and perhaps a bit more interactive with other bloggers. Sometimes, the best way to grow is to simply as for it. Because of this, I think that I might start to go on the offensive once again as the month winds down and my time obligations suffice a little bit. Keep asking questions, and keep bringing in that cash!

Stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (March 2008)
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (September 2008)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (August 2008)

Money aside, September was a pretty lacking month in terms of traffic. Google decided to drop me from a PageRank 4 to a mere PageRank 3… and my Alexa.com ranking tailored off as I tend to focus more on generating return visitors (which Alexa hates). I feel like with some more consistency in getting our at least 4 posts every week, I should be able to bring Jimvesting right back to the top. And hey, I’ve got a pretty cool web hosting contest wrapping up and a great big one planned for October. Let’s get cracking on our results from September!

August Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 633 Readers
• Average Unique Visitors: 379
• Average Returning Visitors: 74
• Average Page Loads: 628
• Alexa.com Ranking: 103,212
• Technorati Ranking: 10,121
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 21
• Google PageRank: 4

September Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 674 Readers (6.48%+)
• Average Unique Visitors: 443 (16.89%+)
• Average Returning Visitors: 69 (-6.76%)
• Average Page Loads: 652 (3.82%+)
• Alexa.com Ranking: 123,750 (-19.90%-)
• Technorati Ranking: 11,137 (-10.04%)
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 47
• Google PageRank: 3

Monthly Review and Growth Strategy
Results from the month show some pretty mixed figures. Understandably, I did NOT gain as many RSS subscribers as intended… I’ll admit that right now. I was pretty shaken by gaining less than 100 subscribers for the first time in a long long while, but the blame has to go toward my increased workload for the period.

Taking this lack of RSS growth into account, relative traffic averages were up considerably during September. I believe that this is attributed to market penetration, as I now get a fair amount of hits regardless of whether or not I actually make a blog post on that date. This is a point in the blogging career that can throw a lot of people out of the loop, since you can visably see traffic holding up even when you slack off. Regardless, I fully intend on breaking this trend and finally exploding upward to 1,000 RSS subscribers and a whole lotta’ traffic growth.

The most disconcerting news was the recent Google PageRank update that brought the website down to a PageRank 3. After jumping from a 0 to a 4, I may have gotten a bit too arrogant in my ability to squeeze PageRank for all it is worth. However, I do believe that it is possible to protest the changes. Because of this, and the quality content that continued to go out live a few times a week, I believe that they should have no problem taking me up on my request. I’ll keep all of you posted on the progress.

September 2008 Revenue Breakdown By Segment
Continuing with the nice graphs from Microsoft Excel, I have now broken down revenue into five segments. The leader this month was HostGator referrals, taking up around 55% of my total revenues. This was mainly the case because of my free Blog Domination package that I started to offer to all your readers out there. Second in the group were advertising sales and miscellaneous commissions, each taking about 15% of the pie. Advertising has been steady ever since I started to offer the 468×60 slot on the top of the page up for grabs. I amy consider raising rates, but will keep sidebar ads at $25 for the time being. Sponsored reviews took around 10% of my earnings while GPT lagged the group with a 5% contribution.

• Advertising Sales ($182.00)
  • 125×125 Ad Blocks – $125
  • 468×60 Ad Block – $45
  • Text Link Ads – $12
• Sponsored Reviews ($120.00)
  • On-Site Reviews – $120
  • ReviewMe reviews – $0
• GPT Website Referrals ($51.75)
  • SWATcash Referrals – $32.32
  • CashCrate Referrals – $19.43
• Misc. Commissions ($190.70)
  • Market Leverage Commission – $4.20
  • OIO Publisher Commission – $18.50
  • Scottrade Commission – $168.00
• HostGator Referrals ($700)
  • Blog Domination – $500
  • Misc. Referrals – $200
• Total September Blog & Blog-Referred Revenue = $1,304.45

Obviously the biggest driver of earnings this go-round were the inflow of HostGator requests that I had in the bank due to my free blog services packages in Blog Domination. Scottrade again brought in some quick cash in the form of trades for me, and successful advertising lending combined with sponsored reviews had my bookings full and healthy for the month.

October 2008 Outlook

As I get into the month, I am in the process of negotiating a competition to run with Market Leverage at the helm. This should be a three-way beneficial transaction. For me, I get some commission money from my referrals. For you, you get not only the money you earn, but prizes worth their weight in gold. For ML, they get new members that are working with their system and pay a bit for performance. More details to come, as I don’t want to reveal everything.

While a lot of other bloggers like to fill their pages with fluff material day after day, I tend to hold out on posts until I can more fully formulate my ideas and get useful information to you. But even with this being said, it’s a drag not being able to post as often as I might like to. Because of this, I am going to do my best once again to attempt posting early and often, so I can successfully run this blog in the face of other businesses, school work and financials. By focusing on the projects that I already have rather than investing in new ones, I feel that I can more easily manage my time and get you paid!

Stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (August 2008)
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (March 2008)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (October 2008)

July was a record-breaking month by all means. However, August did follow up with strong numbers despite my relatively relaxed stance toward growth in the month. Because of this, I am looking more June v. August and was impressed how earnings came in this month. Growth, as always, showed steady improvement. Once I get a bit more settled in for the quarter, I expect growth rates in traffic, subscribers and whatnot to increase as desired. Let’s check out how we fared in August!

July Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 547 Readers
• Average Unique Visitors: 369
• Average Returning Visitors:67
• Average Page Loads:573
• Alexa.com Ranking: 95,501
• Technorati Ranking: 11,324
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 29
• Google PageRank: 4

August Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 633 Readers (15.72%+)
• Average Unique Visitors: 379 (2.71%+)
• Average Returning Visitors: 74 (10.45%+)
• Average Page Loads: 628 (9.60%+)
• Alexa.com Ranking: 103,212 (-8.07%-)
• Technorati Ranking: 10,121 (10.62%+)
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 21 (27.59%+)
• Google PageRank: 4

Monthly Review and Growth Strategy
As you can see by the results, I experienced mostly low-end double-digit growth for the month of August at theNetFool.com. Why? This is probably because I couldn’t keep up with writing. So despite what I felt was great content, you just aren’t going to get as many hits if you aren’t posting every day like I have in past months. That being said, Alexa.com took an unnecessary cut back in my site’s ranking… dropping me to the 100,000s once again. I feel like the algorithm favors regular posting, so it shouldn’t be too hard to build this right back up once I get back to basics.

My strategy was essentially a non-factor for this month, though I am a bit surprised how great the numbers were seeing as I didn’t have any contest last month and wasn’t involved in any competition of sorts. Still, I tried to post as often as possible… despite having one of the busiest months of my life. I’m still moving projects that I am wrapping up onto the books, so this will positively impact my September 2008 earnings once accounted for.

August 2008 Revenue Breakdown
I decided to whip up some graphs for the earnings calls, basically because you can get a better grasp on where I am making my money and how well I have performed over time. I don’t like to keep any secrets, and August proved to be a well-diversified month with earnings coming darn near equal from the business areas I have broken down. Private Ad Sales let the way with just under 35% of earnings, followed closely by Misc. Sales/Commissions at 29% and Sponsored Reviews at 25%. The laggard, though still quite profitable, was GPT referrals which produced 11.30% of my sales for August… great considering I do nothing.

• Advertising Sales ($176.00)
  • 125×125 Ad Blocks ($125)
  • 468×60 Ad Block ($45)
  • Text Link Ads ($6)
• Sponsored Reviews ($130.00)
  • On-Site Reviews – ($80)
  • ReviewMe reviews – ($50)
• GPT Website Referrals ($58.10)
  • SWATcash Referrals – $35.38
  • CashCrate Referrals – $19.43
  • ThisSiteIsForReal Referrals – $3.29
• Misc. Commissions ($149.80)
  • Market Leverage Commission – $6.30
  • SEOBook Commission – $20.00
  • OIO Publisher Commission – $18.50
  • Scottrade Commission – $105.00
• Total August Blog & Blog-Referred Revenue = $514.30

A big surprise this month came from Scottrade, my personal favorite online stock broker that I use and trade with. Basically, I was racking up free trades worth $7 a pop and not really noticing or adding it to the sheets. After I referred three more members this month alone, I decided to add the sales I have made as assets, just like they should be. Other than that, pretty standard commission all around and GPTs held up nicely. After selling out the $45 top banner ad, I had a record-breaking month in terms of private advertising… which is always a good indicator of growth.

September 2008 Outlook
I anticipate running a smaller contest sometime in the middle of the month this time around. I do have a bigger one in the works for October so stay tuned for that one… hopefully I can pull some goodies and electronics for you all to cash in on. I’m going to go ahead and project somewhat conservative traffic growth in the mid-teens for this month. I really don’t anticipate doing an “extreme” amount of blogging, though I am hoping to get posts out on a more consistent basis as I continue to build a web presence for the blog.

That being said, I publish nothing but high quality information that you can use in a practical way to make money. Because of this, I typically spend around two-three hours on each post I write up here and definitely try to get you guys into the black on your investments. I hope that you enjoyed the new charts that I threw in today, I’ll be continuing to use them in future reports as I think it adds a nice touch.

Stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (September 2008)
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (March 2008)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (October 2008)

Made available to you once more is my free 55-page eBook “Creating A Blog,” compliments of the Net Fool! If you want to know how to start your own blog or fine tune one you already have in place, this is definitely a must-read. Getting back to the numbers, things really picked up toward the end of the month. With a whopping last-week rally of 127 RSS subscribers, we have surpassed the 500-subscriber mark in style! Let’s see how our numbers improved in July 2008.

June Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 333 Readers
• Average Unique Visitors: 299
• Average Returning Visitors:52
• Average Page Loads:468
• Alexa.com Ranking: 95,308
• Technorati Ranking: 13,851
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 35
• Google PageRank: 4

July Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 547 Readers (64.26%+)
• Average Unique Visitors: 369 (23.41%+)
• Average Returning Visitors:67 (28.85%+)
• Average Page Loads:573 (22.44%+)
• Alexa.com Ranking: 95,501 (0.20%-)
• Technorati Ranking: 11,324 (18.24%+)
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 29 (17.14%+)
• Google PageRank: 4

Monthly Review and Growth Strategy
Looking back on the month, it seems that all of the traffic numbers have continued to grow strongly in the mid-twenties range. I am not concerned with Alexa.com results as the loss was negligible and the system is known for being a bit off now and then. I had planned to pass 400 subscribers this month, as 100 subscribers per month is generally a solid goal. However, I was able to drive in a whopping 214 added readers to bump us all the way past 500 (nearing 550) as this month was certainly a thriller. Other than subscriber numbers alone, the growth in traffic was generally consistent with prior months. We managed to keep everything in line here with no noticeable movements to the upside.

After adjusting estimates downward for the month, a superior execution of my growth strategy allowed for consensus estimate beats across the board. The main catalysts in this month were focused on picking up subscribers for the Blogging Idol competition that ran the month of July. The full results aren’t out yet, but I definitely finished in the top ten and more than likely in the top 4-7 range! While I didn’t actively promote my participation, and actually ranted against the basis of the competition, it was a nice motivator beyond any doubt. My first strategy was essentially an active marketing campaign where I intentionally sought out subscribers through emailing, commenting and linking. The other big driver was Jimvesting’s July Referral Extravaganza which pulled in a great deal of subscribers as I gave away a Flip Mino to the most active referrer (results pending).

One of my strategies for campaigning was especially devious. You may have noticed many people in Blogging Idol just giving away links on their blogs for subscribers. The exploit here is obvious. People that made these exchanges are obviously interested in traffic, so I simply made lists of people who were in the exchanges and emailed them. In the emails, I essentially wrote that I had subscribed to their blogs (I did, of course), and would love for them to subscribe to mine. This is an example of no-pressure marketing scheme that usually results in a subscription and a happy returning reader. Just another lesson in business from Jim.

July 2008 Revenue Breakdown
Last month I earned a pretty solid $370.26 from theNetFool.com and related activities. This month completely blew this out of the water, despite a lowered advertising plan, due to a major bonus upgrade from my still-favorite GPT website SWATcash. Over $1,800 of revenue came in from the site this month alone, and I continue to maintain a healthy business relationship with them made possible by the continued stream of subscribers that I throw their way. I strongly encourage you to check out my review of SWATcash to clear any doubt. Still sales coming in for my eBook that I haven’t mentioned in a long time, which is sort of funny to me as a marketer. Let’s get to the full results, shall we?

• Private Advertising Sales – $159.00
• Sponsored Reviews – $70.00
• ReviewMe reviews – $50.00
• eBook Sales – $30.00
• SWATcash Referrals – $53.86
• SWATcash Bonuses – $1,803.00
• CashCrate Referrals – $24.22
• ThisSiteIsForReal Referrals – $14.27
• Total July Blog & Referred Revenue = $2,204.35

This month was by far the biggest revenue this blog has ever seen, and ever will see for quite some time. Before you call me out for the insane accrued revenue in the books from SWATcash, please keep in mind that the GPT offers incentives which I have been saving virtually since the blog started. All of the revenue you see above directly stems from activity on theNetFool.com, as all of the sales and referrals leads are directly from traffic on this blog. I hope this $2k+ income report proves how powerful reputation leveraging can be!

In July, I published just three sponsored reviews. While I believe in saving review posts for a once-a-week at most occasion, I would still like to see a bit more like five come out. I have decided to bump rates on these to $40, as I have seen continued reports of feedback, commenting, clicks and sign-ups all brought by my lengthy and detailed reviews. Most of these are around 1,000 words… which is more than you’ll get anywhere else… and I now have over 500 RSS subscribers active to read up on things. I feel that a $5 increase is totally justified as most advertisers have huge budgets regardless.

Once again, spending here was extremely limited. I have not formally checked my books, but I believe that I spent less than $50 promoting theNetFool.com. I don’t believe in capital spending very much I suppose, and maybe I’m getting a bit too greedy pushing funds into my stock brokerage account (haha), so I am planning on spending more this month to balance things out.

August 2008 Outlook
It’s strange how fast the summer has gone away, I’ll even be moving back into the dorms at Penn State in a few weeks… so who knows how this month will pan out! Definitely check out my new stock market blog Bullish Bankers if you haven’t already. I’ll be doing a fair amount of posting there, but definitely not anything that would detract from the attention I spend on Jimvesting, so don’t you worry!

After being contacted by a few people about blog competitions, I think I may throw together a quick advertising spree this month and focus on website advertising as prizes. I know that a lot of these prizes are often worthless to some, but I feel that if the contest is clearly labeled to be giving away solely advertising, than it is much more effective. Please contact me if you have a popular blog and you’d like to get some exposure by contributing to the August contest here at Jimvesting!

I hope that you enjoyed this lengthy earnings & traffic run down, as it was definitely the best month so far. I’m looking forward to making you some more money online… so stay bullish on the net!

-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (June 2008 Traffic & Income Results)
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (May 2008 Trafic & Income Results)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (August 2008)

Catalysts this month included the June Birthday Bash that was held here in the middle weeks of action. With Market Leverage at the reigns, this blog managed to really boost RSS numbers more than ever before. After giving away a Flip Mino and $50 ML Rewards Card, I have now gone ahead and provided for a free eBook for all of you RSS subscribers out there. I’m hoping this title will provide some incentive to subscribe to my blog. Getting something for nothing is always smiled upon. You can download “Creating A Blog” here. Now let’s get on with the June results!

May Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 207 Readers
• Average Unique Visitors: 200
• Average Returning Visitors:38
• Average Page Loads:337
• Alexa.com Ranking: 147,125
• Technorati Ranking: 27,027
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 55
• Google PageRank: 4

June Results

• RSS Subscriber Count: 333 Readers (60.87%+)
• Average Unique Visitors: 299 (49.50%+)
• Average Returning Visitors:52 (36.84%+)
• Average Page Loads:468 (38.87%+)
• Alexa.com Ranking: 95,308 (35.22%+)
• Technorati Ranking: 13,851 (48.75%+)
• 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 35 (36.36%+)
• Google PageRank: 4

Monthly Review and Growth Strategy
Results coming in this month beat estimates, coming in higher than expected driven by some well-trafficked articles, increased linking action from popular blogs and strong results from the June contest. Most notable was an RSS subscriber jump up over 60% for the month, tacking on another 100+ subscribers to theNetFool.com’s feed. This growth in the number of readers was clearly reflected in overall traffic numbers, as returning visitors came in over 50 as an average (up 36.84% from 38) and unique visitors ramping up by 100 viewers a day.

Almost more impressive than numbers alone were the ranking jumps in Technorati, Alexa and 45n5′s Top 100 Blog service. Jimvesting’s Technorati ranking was slashed nearly in half, dropping from 27,027 to 13,851. Also, Alexa rankings received a noteworthy bump past that ever-elusive 100,000 benchmark from about 150,000 to just 95,308. This dramatic increase in website strength gave theNetFool.com a stunning 35 ranking in the top 100 blogs… a feat that is nothing to scoff at, as just being in the top 100 is a blessing on it’s own.

July is going to be a busy one, so forecasts for growth need to be reflected downward as it will be a struggle just to maintain daily posting routines. However, as results from June proved… you just never know. As part of the Blogging Idol contest, I’ll be trying to bump up RSS subscriber numbers as much as possible. But with work coming into play, along with side projects online, it’s going to be interesting to see if growth can really come in as planned this upcoming month.

June 2008 Revenue Breakdown
Last month (May 2008), I recorded the best revenue yet at $787.20. This number was driven largely by success from the eBook “Work Smart, Get Rich” and a $200 sale of web design services. This month, a lot more organic money was brought in from the blog itself… so I was able to raise some decent cash without turning to alternative earning methods.

• SWATcash Referrals – $59.14
• ReviewMe Reviews- $50.00
• ThisSiteIsForReal Referrals- $0.30
• CashCrate Referrals – $24.22
• OIO Publisher Sales – $28.50
• Market Leverage – $22.10
• eBook Sales – $70.00
• Private Ad Sales – $116.00
• = $370.26 Total

So with about $400 in revenue this month, I’m quite satisfied with my performance. Ad money is coming in steadily at $20 per sidebar banner, so maybe I will raise rates in the future. If you are interested in some valued real estate on the cheap, why not purchase an ad slot and lock in the discount? Again, this income was largely independent of my own freelance work. My expenditures were also higher than ever as I actively sought ad space on other blogs in my niche area. I spent $93.00 on private ads for other blogs, and have started up a few new projects, costing a few bucks for the domain names.

As you know, I’m not much into spending money. I think this is starting to change as I make the shift into putting money into private ads, experimenting to see how much traffic I can expect if I am actively campaigning. The good news is that I have a solid backlog at this time. With a pending $50 review coming in from ReviewMe and some interested advertising purchasers, it shouldn’t be a problem matching this month’s numbers. One thing that is good about blogging revenue is that it has a snowballing effect, and generally produces results independent of other factors

July 2008 Outlook
In the month of July, I am expecting continued performance from advertising sales on theNetFool.com to kick in. I only managed one review last month, which could have easily been more if I was so inclined, so I will try to focus on perhaps doing more like 3-5 of them to juice up my earnings potential. I do not currently have a contest planned, but do have some prizes to give away, so I might entertain the possibility of some more “on the fly” competitions to gain some traffic when needed.

July is going to be a busy one, as I am actively working on a new stock market blog (in the pipeline, no preview for you! ) and am going to be working possibly two jobs in the real world. But even with this in mind, I’m going to be giving some good attention to making you month on the internet with some fun ideas… as I know you guys enjoy some tricks and pointers. So stick with Jimvesting, and stay bullish on the net!

-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (July 2008 Traffic & Income Results)
2. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (May 2008 Trafic & Income Results)
3. Jimvesting Dot Com Earnings Call (March 2008)