Swollen Pickles

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.

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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.

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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. (more...)

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Here are the latest results in my ongoing goal project. The calendar year is drawing to a close, and I'm starting to see some interesting results. Apologies if this bores you, but if you want a laugh, check out the IT Crowd post instead. For everyone else, read on...

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $200 per month.

Swollen Pickles revenue has steadied, hitting $106.56 for November, up from $101.72 in October.

Here’s the breakdown for November:
Adsense: $20.23
AuctionAds: $0
PayPerPost: $0
Commission Junction: $13.68
Kontera: $7.65
Misc.: $65.00

Once again, I didn't take any PayPerPost opportunities in November which hurt the revenue somewhat. I've started experimenting with various Commission Junction programs, and they are showing signs of potential.

I haven't included my WidgetBucks earnings at this stage, as the payment is not scheduled to come through until the 15 December. It's important to note that I have earned $433.72 via WidgetBucks, and the recent announcement that WidgetBucks will be serving CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ads within its widgets so publishers can monetize their international traffic is further good news. Go check out WidgetBucks for your self.

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

For the third month in a row Swollen Pickles received over 20,000 unique visits. November saw 24,770 unique Swollen Pickles visitors, up from 21,859 unique visitors in October. My "How I stopped a bandwidth thief" post was the most popular post for the month, closely followed by "Top 5 most inappropriate logo designs".

What I've found interesting is that my three biggest traffic months have happened during my Google SERPs kicking. Curious.

3. Develop digitalburn.org into a website that can generate $30 per month.

DigitalBurn.org is starting to take off. November was a record high month, with revenue hitting $86.49, up from $49.41 in October. Revenue was a healthy mix of Adsense, WidgetBucks and Commission Junction.

4. Develop digitalburn.org to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

DigitalBurn.org finally passed its goal point, with 8,951 unique visitors in November compared to 5,304 in October. The two most visited posts were "How to create Aphex Twin effects using Reason" and "Joel Stroetzel | Killswitch Engage | Guitar Rig"

5. Achieve my goal weight of 80kgs, which would give me a BMI within the “normal” range.

Down from last month, but not a significant enough drop to require a new wardrobe. Not enough motivation and no sign of fitness equipment.

6. Buy an Xbox 360 (yes I know, counterproductive to no.5, but I need one!).

COMPLETE!!! More details here.

LEGO Rock Band (Xbox 360) - Mint Condition!

US $22.99

15m

Well, I think of all the goals, this and the weight one are the two most likely not to happen.

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Good news, I can finally tick off one goal from my goals project list. That's right, a week ago I picked up an Xbox360! I can't believe I waited so long, that machine is freakin awesome. Hooked into surround sound I was blown away by the details. After a few games I was also glad that I picked up the version with the hard drive. Saved games would have quickly consumed the base level memory.

I've already accumulated a handful of games (largely from the 'Classics' collection) including Gears of War, Dead Rising, Saints Row, Project Gotham Racing 3, Crack Down and Command and Conquer 3. Due to time constraints, I've only had time to play Gears of War, Dead Rising and Saints Row for any length of time. Gears of War is flat out awesome, graphics are detailed, physics and gameplay are as realistic as anything I've come across, and the surround sound really puts you in the middle of the action.

Dead Rising has been a favourite due to it's liberal 'borrowing' of the "Dawn of the Dead" scenario, whereby you are trapped in a shopping mall fighting back hordes of zombies. The difference here is that you are a photo journalist, who, whilst fighting zombies, is also trying to solve the mystery of what has caused the zombie phenomenon in the first place. It leaves you a variety of creative ways through which to dispatch zombies, and you can either try and solve the mystery or just see how many zombies you can destroy. Fun for the whole family!

Saints Row is like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on steroids. More action, more crime and far more profanity. I can see was this one scores the MA rating!

All up, the Xbox360 was a good buy, and definitely well worth the wait. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a planet to save...

Army Color Silicone Case Skin For Xbox 360 Controller

US $5.25

15m

Microsoft Xbox 360 console broken

12 Bids

US $38.01

15m

The Saboteur (Xbox 360, 2009) NEW IN BOX

7 Bids

US $24.50

15m

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October was an interesting month. Results for this month were really a mixed bag. I've been preoccupied with other things recently, which has meant that I've had very little time to devote to the websites, and the goals project.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $200 per month.

There was a decline in Swollen Pickles income this month, down to $101.72 compared to $152.15 in September.

Here’s the breakdown for October:
Adsense: $12.01
AuctionAds: $0
PayPerPost: $7.50
PayU2Blog: $76
Kontera: $1.38
WidgetBucks: $4.83

The difference between September and October was that I didn't take a single PayPerPost opportunity in October (the $7.50 listed was the result of a referral conversion). I also dropped Text-Link-Ads from this site due to the whole Google SERPs fiasco. AuctionAds is still sucking. WidgetBucks is going ok, I didn't include the $25 signup bonus in these figures either.

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

For the second month in a row Swollen Pickles received over 20,000 unique visits. In October there were 21,859 unique visitors. The surprise packet was the Deadpool the forgotten super hero post that received almost 6% of all page views. It's an older post, and one that people didn't seem interested in originally. What is even more interesting is that basically all the visitors to that page came within a two day period via Stumbleupon.

3. Develop digitalburn.org into a website that can generate $30 per month.

DigitalBurn.org brought in $49.41 for October, way up on the $15.63 from September. 99% of it came from AdSense, which seems to be fluctuating quite a bit lately.

4. Develop digitalburn.org to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

Big jump for October with 5,304 unique visits compared to the 1,751 in September.

5. Achieve my goal weight of 80kgs, which would give me a BMI within the “normal” range.

Think I actually lost weight this month, although results are inconclusive.

6. Buy an Xbox 360 (yes I know, counterproductive to no.5, but I need one!).

Still waiting....

7. Write and record three new songs including lyrics and vocals.

Ughh...

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It's that time of the month again... the monthly goal update. Not sure that anyone actually reads and/or likes these, but I do, so that's the main thing!

As we all know from reading last months update, August 2007 kicked all kinds of booty for Swollen Pickles, with record highs across the board. I know what you're thinking, can that ground breaking success be replicated a second time??

Short answer... not quite. (more...)

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September looks like it's going to obliterate all swollenpickles.com monthly traffic records. The first 11 days of September have seen 10,235 unique visits, blowing right past the previous record of 8,783 in August 2007. At the current rate, I'll pass the 15,000 unique visits for the month goal within the next few days.

Why the sudden traffic deluge?

Well, I have to put it down the "stumble effect". Based on what I'm seeing via analytics, four of my recent posts have been somewhat stumble worthy, these posts, in order of popularity, are:

• Rollin with Saget: It seems a dirty Bob Saget is a popular Bob Saget.
• Old School Advertising Full of Innuendo: Old ads are almost always funny.
• Turning up the heat on the bandwidth thief: Maybe this one is due to the two Rhinos "do'in" it?
• How I stopped a bandwidth thief: Perhaps this post is genuinely useful for some people?

How long this "stumble effect" lasts remains to be seen. I'd probably expect it to taper off soon. One thing I have noticed is that the influx of stumble traffic has had no positive (or negative) effect on my Adsense earnings. They are currently quite similar to last months figures.

In summary, the stumble traffic is obviously fantastic for boosting visitor count, and by association Alexa rank, but it does not appear that effective in increasing Adsense revenue. Whether my experience here, translates to other blogs, I'm not sure, but I would be interested in hearing from others on this.

In other news, Swollen Pickles has just hit myspace. Currently Tom is my only friend. Wanna be my friend?

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It's once again time for my goal project update. August was a bona fide ball tearer for swollenpickles.com in terms of both revenue and traffic. I also edged closer to achieving a couple of my other goals.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $200 per month.

For the first time is Swollen Pickles history, this site has generated more than the target of $200 for the month. In August, swollenpickles.com raked in $203.04USD, up from the $80.28USD in July.

The breakdown by revenue source was:
Adsense: $26.91
AuctionAds: $0
PayPerPost: $28
Text-Link-Ads: $8.13
PayU2Blog: $140

As you can see, PayU2Blog came through big time this month, without it, things would have just been average. This site had one of its biggest Adsense months which was a positive. AuctionAds performed less than impressively in August, and Text-Link-Ads still hasn't really taken off. The post level link on the highly visited "Paris Hilton camel toe" page continues to go unsold.

This month I found that I have over $300 in PayPerPost referrals that aren't converting due to people signing up and then not following through with a post. If all the people that joined via my affiliate link decided to post tomorrow, I'd be on clover!

I joined up with Commission Junction in August, but am yet to see any results.

2. Develop Swollen Pickles to the point where it receives 15,000 unique visits per month.

8,781 kind unique visitors stopped by swollenpickles.com in August. This was up on the 5,620 in July. Whilst this is a big improvement, it is still well under the target.

3. Develop digitalburn.org into a website that can generate $30 per month.

Digital Burn, my electronic music blog had a good month in terms of both Adsense ($18.95) and AuctionAds ($14.39). Total revenue from DigitalBurn.org in August was $36.42, the first time in its history that it has passed its target (and up from the $12.68 it made last month). The site has recently been accepted into the Text-Link-Ads system, and it will be interesting to see how it goes, particularly as a lot of the content could be considered "niche".

4. Develop digitalburn.org to the point where it receives 7,500 unique visits per month.

This site is really struggling to achieve its traffic goals, with 1,488 unique visitors in August compared to the 1,637 unique visits in July. I need to set aside some time to work on a traffic building strategy.

5. Achieve my goal weight of 80kgs, which would give me a BMI within the “normal” range.

Low fat snacks are the order of the day.

6. Buy an Xbox 360 (yes I know, counterproductive to no.5, but I need one!).

Unchanged, I have highlighted the release of Halo 3 as my trigger point for buying the 360.

7. Write and record three new songs including lyrics and vocals.

I did not plug the electric guitar in once during August, and played around with Reason 3.0 sparingly. The acoustic got a workout, but nothing came of it. I simply haven't been able to find the time for this one.

In summary, August was the best month monetarily in the history of both key blogs. I'm nervous though the swollenpickles.com relied heavily on one revenue source to achieve its target, but hopefully traffic continues to build and the other streams kick in to contribute a little more.

If you want an overview of all the monetization programs I have tried to date, check out the money page, aka. the lazy guys guide to making money online.

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