My Highest Residual Income Day

Last November, I set a record for residual income earned on one day -- a personal record, that is. There are, obviously, plenty of freelance writers and internet marketers who regularly do far better. This was quite a day, though, hundreds of dollars above my previous best day and something I likely won't beat for quite some time.

The majority came from sales through a certain merchant I link to via the commission junction (cj.com) affiliate network. While the sales were in the same general niche, they came from two avenues: an eHow article I'd written, and a niche website that was only a few months old at the time.

Here's the breakdown:

(cj.com sale commissions via eHow article:  $164.44
cj.com sale commissions via family/home niche website: $575.47)

cj.com total: $739.91
eHow: $104.55
Adsense: $20.15
Amazon $4.47

Total one-day earnings: $869.07

Just to make that number seem even crazier, a year of those earnings every. single. day. would mean a $317,000+ annual income! Wow.

Ironically, I'm earning less than $1,500 now per month, as my September earnings demonstrate, but having this crazy-high earnings day to look back on reminds me of what's possible, as well as how much potential there is in my home/family niche blog.(By the way, I got the inspiration for that blog during my first month in the Wealthy Affiliate online training program).

The thing about residual income is that it can be fickle, and follow a feast/ famine trajectory at times. But when I look at earnings over a time frame of weeks and months, it evens out to a more predictable pattern. The key is not to expect single-day highs but to work strategically for long-term growth and income. And that's what I'm doing now.


Do you have a earnings mark or other indicator that you look back on as a reminder that you're doing something right? I'd love to hear about it!

Niche Site Profits in May 2011

The numbers are in for my niche website earnings in May. Since I'm working to replace my eHow earnings of about $3,000 a month, I check these stats at the end of every month to see how I'm doing.

Over the past month, I added a few pages to my pets site and a couple posts to my home/ family blog. I added a backlink to my home/ family blog through eZine Articles, but that was at the very end of May.

Here's how my two best-earning websites are doing:

Pets niche site

Adsense   $431.31
Clickbank  $20.02
Amazon    $15.90

Total $467.23

Home/ Family blog
PCo Affiliate $205.08
cj.com      $64.78
Clickbank  $21.24
Adsense   $13.60

Total $304.70

Combined earnings for both sites together was $771.93. In the grand scheme of things, these numbers are not gigantic -- but on the other hand, I'm greatly encouraged by the results as I can see the potential they both have for future earnings as I increase content, improve their look and navigation, and build social network and search engine traffic.


Have you been working on a website or blog? Are you happy with the results so far?

Niche Site Profits April 2011

 With the eHow WCP closed for good and taking with it the backbone of what was a full-time passive residual income from writing, I've been working harder than ever on my own properties to rebuild my monthly residuals. I recently shared my residual income without eHow. In April, I focused efforts on two of my own sites to begin rebuilding monthly cash flow. I'll share their income reports below.

Facebook Fan Page
In April, I added some backlinks and set up a Facebook page for my pets site.  The Facebook page has 15 fans and I've posted links to articles on my site there, receiving a few comments and a sprinkling of visitors. With the Google changes, social media is increasingly important for traffic and rankings.

Outsourcing Content
While the pets site was previously written entirely by me, and is on a topic with which I am very familiar and work with in real life on a daily basis, I decided to hire a freelance writer to help me add more articles to it in May. The writer has personal experience in this niche as well, and I'm confident I'll see quality work from him. I'll update on that front next month.

Pets Website Earnings
Income for this niche hit its peak in March, as was the case in 2010 and 2009, and will wind slowly down from here, with the fall months typically the lowest-earning.

Adsense      $557.74
Clickbank   $220.18
Amazon        $16.44

April total   $794.36

(-$10.33 compared to March 2011)

Family Niche Blog Income
Just the other day, I lamented to my husband that my newer niche blog on a family-related topic was only earning about $10 a month from Adsense, whereas the pets site at the same age was making $80-$100 a month from ad clicks and affiliate commissions. It wasn't until I listed and tallied all its income sources that I realized it's actually doing very well.

Started last August, it's less than nine months old and has just 15 blog posts and four pages. I discovered this niche from one of my eHow articles that did exceptionally well (it earned over $3,000 in revenue share and more than $1,500 in affiliate commissions in 3.5 years).

Family niche blog income sources in April 2011:

cj.com       $29.75
RA sales    $21.82
Clickbank  $21.24 
Amazon     $17.06
Adsense      $9.82

Total         $99.69

Thus my total earnings from these two sites in April was $894.05 -- to me, a very encouraging number. I have over a dozen domain names, most sitting unloved with just a few pages or posts apiece (or in some cases, nothing), but by focusing my efforts on one or two sites at a time, I hope to bring them all up to at least the $100/month mark by next year and keep growing from there.

•  Check out my Tools & Training resource page for links to the products and services I use and recommend. If you haven't made your own profitable website yet, everything you need to get started is right there.

Do you have a niche site or blog? How is it doing? If not, what's stopping you from moving forward?