It's fair to say that I struggled to maintain any momentum in May. I had trouble finding time to post regularly and found even less time to work on fixing up a couple of themes. To summaries, May saw me neglecting all my 'goals', but it was pleasing to see that even though I did hardly anything, I still managed to make a bit of cash.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

Well, sometimes you only get out what you put in, and since I put in very little in May, I guess I shouldn't have expected to make a fortune. Swollen Pickles made $180.83 in May, the lowest return since November 2007.

In terms of the revenue breakdown, the highest earner for May was the Commission Junction/eBay Partner Network, with $40.97. I'm pretty happy with that as I've proven that phpBay Pro can pay for itself within a month, from one website alone. LinkWorth also brought in a handy $28. I've mentioned previously that I had noticed WidgetBucks had picked up again, and it earned $13.76 in May.

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.

After the recording breaking 39,445 unique visits in April, traffic figures were a little disappointing in May, dipping well below the target with 22,302 unique visits in May. I have attempted to address this issue in the only way I know how... another celebrity camel toe picture. This time Sharon Stone's ye olde camel toe. High brow? No. Sophisticated? No. Mature? No. Profitable? Well, maybe.

3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.

DigitalBurn picked up slightly in May, earning $106.82. The major earner was Commission Junction, via phpBay Pro, with just over $30 coming in via AdSense.

4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

Traffic for DigitalBurn has levelled out in recent months, sitting below the target. There were 11,472 unique visitors in May. Up slightly from April.

5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.

It was good to see Motor Dude finally reaching one of its targets, nudging over the $50 mark with $59.93 for the month of May.

6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

Whilst the revenue target was reached, traffic to Motor Dude actually decreased, with only 1,386 unique visits for the month of May. To address this, I think I need to write a couple more general interest car stories, that would appeal to a wider audience and not just the hard core motoring enthusiasts./

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

97kgs. It's winter. I hibernate.

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April flew by. Can't say I'm satisfied with the progress I made in April, with some disappointing results across the board. Here’s the update.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

Declining fortunes in April, dollar wise, with total revenue brought in via SwollenPickles.com coming in at $246.56, down from $308.40 in March.

Here’s a rough breakdown:
Adsense: $26.58
Kontera: $11.10
WidgetBucks: $0.50
LinkWorth: $56.00

Shopzilla.com

: $150.29
Misc: $2.59

WidgetBucks earning were right down this month, largely due to me all but removing them to make way for some
Shopzilla.com

ads. LinkWorth continued to perform well, and I'd say it's well worth a look.

I can't really add this to the total, but I've made $5.78 already from Predictify from predictions I've made that have come true.

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.

April was a massive traffic month for SwollenPickles.com. There were 39,445 unique visits in April, smashing the March mark of 24,448. A big part of this had to do with the Gordon Ramsey recipe post getting stumbled.

3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.

Digital Burn continues to struggle, making $65.80 in April, up from $61.59 in March. A majority of this income came from AdSense.

4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

There were 10,544 unique visitors to DigitalBurn.org in April, down again from March (11,784). I had another slack month in that I didn't provide many updates at all.

5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.

MotorDude.com made $24.17 in April, up from $23.63 in March but still not hitting the mark. Again, this one is suffering from a lack of attention.

6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

Another sad motoring month with 1,625 unique visits down slightly from 1,660 in March.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

Need new batteries for the scales.

Here's the update for the month of March. I'm inching closer to achieving some of these, but as you'll see, there's still more work required.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

In February this site generated $530.97. March, was not quite as good, $308.40. Here's a rough breakdown.
Adsense: $30.48
Kontera: $13.90
WidgetBucks: $50.08
LinkWorth: $35.22

Shopzilla.com

: $95.18
Misc: $83.50

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.

February, whilst a short month, still brought in 28,840 visitors. March, was a little slower, with 24,448. There was quite a lot of downtime in March, I'd estimate 9 days in which posts couldn't be viewed. No doubt this impacted upon the numbers, but to what extent, I'm not sure.

3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.

Digital Burn made $61.59 in March, well down from the $121 in February. Disappointing!

4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

There were 11,784 unique visitors to www.digitalburn.org in March. Getting close to the 15,000 but still not good enough. I probably need to update that site more regularly.

5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.

There was $23.63 earned from www.motordude.com in March. Sad stuff!

6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

Another sad number. 1,660 unique visitors in March, cut by almost 50% from February.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

Honestly, minimal progress. I have to do more exercise. Full stop CAPITAL LETTERS.

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February was a slightly shorter month, but fortunately it was a fairly good one in terms of me setting out to achieve some of my goals. So let us check out how things went for February 2008.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

I didn't think I was going to get past $350 for a while, but then things picked up and I scored my second highest month on record, $530.97.

Here’s a rough breakdown (highlighting the higher earners) by revenue stream for January:
Adsense: $31.34
Kontera: $17.57
Reviews: $105
Commission Junction: $14.70
LinkWorth: $15.45
Shopzilla: $338.97

It's early days with Shopzilla, and I'm not sure if they can sustain that level for long, but it's nice while it lasts!

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.

Nearly cracked the 30,000 mark in February with 28,840 unique visitors stopping by, up from the 17,099 in January. I'm fairly happy with that result as it is close to one thousand unique visitors a day.

3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.

Not a bad month for DigitalBurn, bringing in $121.03. This was largely courtesy of the Commission Junction sales generated by the phpBay Pro WordPress Plugin. In February I made $73.52 from this channel, more than covering the $49 the plugin cost me. Factor another $25 or so I made from other sites using the same plugin and I doubled my investment in the first month alone. Based on it's performance so far, I'd highly recommend picking up the plugin whilst it is still $49. Find out more about phpBay Pro here.

4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

There were 12,734 unique visitors to the site in February, up slightly from 12,164 in January. Not bad I guess.

5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.

Well, $55.09 was made from MotorDude.com, thanks largely to a ReviewMe review.

6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

Disappointing month visits wise with only 2,779 people checking it out.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

99kg

The Swollen Pickles 2008 Goals Project is now in full swing. I've set the new targets for this year, now I just have to go about achieving them! How did I go in January? Let's check out the score board.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

A good start on this one for 2008, with Swollen Pickles bringing in $334.33 for the month. This is the second highest total on record, with the best figure coming in December 2007 with $552.02. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be able to maintain the December and January figures in the short term as a majority of the revenue has come from a couple of 'high roller' WidgetBucks referrals.

Here's a rough breakdown by revenue stream for January:
Adsense: $19.89
Kontera: $6.94
Reviews: $95.97
WidgetBucks: $208.56
ScratchBack: $2.97

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.

17,099 beautiful people visited SwollenPickles.com in January 2008. This is a bit lower than what I'd averaged for the months leading up to the end of 2007 (a touch over 20,000). Generally things seem to slow down in January, so perhaps the web is no different?

3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.

A slow month for my music blog, bringing in $50.51, less than December 2007 and far less than my target! In one positive, I picked up $14 from Commission Junction, thanks to the phpBay Pro plugin. I picked up the plugin about 2 weeks ago. It cost me $49 but the way things are going I'll have made that back by the end of February. The phpBay Pro plugin is a highly recommended buy for anyone with a "niche" blog.

4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

12,164 people visited Digital Burn in January 2008, up from 10,197 in December 2007. Averaging 15,000 per month definitely looks achievable, hopefully this is a goal I can achieve quickly then look at reviewing mid-year.

5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.

My little car blog brought in a mammoth $33.46 in January, not bad considering the amount of traffic it gets I suppose.

6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

There were 3,726 visitors to MotorDude.com in January 2008, up from 2,969 in December 2007.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

Tipping in at 99kgs at the minute. Since the start of the year I've made a concerted effort to minimise my intake of junk food and soft drinks. Biggest struggle is with my addiction to Coca-Cola.

It took me a couple of weeks but I have finally updated my goals for the 2008 calender year. You can view the 2008 goal page here, or just click on 'Goals' in the top navigation bar.

In a nutshell, here are the goals I have set for 2008:

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.
2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 30,000 unique visits per month.
3. Develop Digital Burn into a website that can generate $150 per month.
4. Develop Digital Burn to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.
5. Develop Motor Dude into a website that can generate $50 per month.
6. Develop Motor Dude to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.
7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

You'll noticed that I kept this years set of goals focused primarily on web stuff. I may have been a little optimistic in terms of the financial goals for a couple of these sites, but if I don't try, I'll never get there. If you're wondering how I arrived at the dollar figures, it was largely based on what I thought was achieveable given the growth in the past 12 months. Also if I averaged those figures over a year, then it would go close to paying my rent, and having a roof over your head is a good thing!

There's also a new, highly classified, uber top secret, project I'm working on at the moment, however I haven't included that in the list as yet. Perhaps I will once it launches.

In other news, I recently forked out the cash for the Pro version of the phpBay plugin. It cost me $49.95 US, but based on the performance of the Lite version, I'll have made my money back on it within a couple of weeks.

Well 2007 is over, finished, complete. That signals the end of the 2007 Goal Project. As a general comment, I've found the whole goal setting project to be quite motivating, and good for keeping me on track in certain areas. With December 2007 over, you might be asking, how did I do? Well, follow me and lets find out. » Read the rest of the entry..