As the door closes on 2008, it also close on another 12 months of the Swollen Pickles goal project. It's been a big year, with some decent gains made in some areas, and some disappointments in others.

Join me, as I take a look at how I went in December 2008.

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

To say that the past couple of months have been disappointing is probably an understatement. In November 2008 SwollenPickles.com limped to $98.55. December 2008 saw revenue increase to $121.83 for the month. I'm not much of a mathematician, but I doubt that increase is statistically significant.

I made ten bucks from AdBrite this month. I have set up AdBrite to run as an alternative to Adsense if no Adsense ads are able to be displayed.

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

A grand total of 27,048 unique patrons stopped by in December 2008, up slightly from 25,101 unique visitors in November.

Here's a graph showing unique visits to this site for the past 2 years, comparing actual traffic to my target.

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

December 2008 saw DigitalBurn nudge past is revenue goal, bringing in $159.54 for the month, well up on the $70.51 for November 2008.

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

Another traffic increase, with 13,028 unique visits to the site in December 2008 up from 11,284 in November.

The first full month of statistics tracking on DigitalBurn for a couple of months. There were 11,284 unique visitors in November.

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

A record high month for MotorDude.com, with the site generating $229 for December, up on $151.92 in November, and well over the goal I set at the start of the year of $50 per month.

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

MotorDude.com seems to be proving that it is possible to do quite a bit with very little. There were only 697 unique visitors to the site in December, down from 740 in November.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

In a case of better late than never, the start of December saw me start up at a gym for three visits a week. While I know it's still early days, and my work hasn't really impacted on the scales, I think I can say that I actually feel better for it.

In summary 2008 was an interesting year for me and my little goal experiment. Besides the revenue generated by MotorDude I can't really say that I hit any of my goals for six (or out of the park - depending upon where you are from), but I can say that they gave me something to aim for. It's funny how things pan out, as I started 2008 with SwollenPickles.com as my 'flagship' and number one earner. At the end of 2008 that was no longer the case. It's left me scratching my head a little. On the one hand, I'm glad that a couple of other sites have developed the way they have, on the other, I'm disappointed SwollenPickles.com didn't live up to its financial promise in 2008.

I'm yet to sit down and think about what goals I should set/work on for 2009... any suggestions?

November is traditionally a very busy month for me, and 2008 was no exception. I say this, because basically I spent very little time on any of my websites, so I guess I should be grateful that they made anything at all! Enough of the rambling, the goal project keeps on keeping on...

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

What's that smell? Oh, that's just the chances of SwollenPickles.com reaching it's goal turning to crap. For the second month in a row, SwollenPickles.com failed to even scrape past the $100 mark. Total revenue for November was $98.55. Maybe it's the financial crisis?

Small figures across the board, with Commission Monster and MoreNiche both contributing this month.

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

Edging closer to the target, with 25,101 unique visitors in November up from 23,996 in October.

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

There was a massive nose dive here as well, with November seeing $70.51, well down on the $200+ from October. The big difference here was the eBay Partner Network (EPN). There were some well documented issues with the EPN reporting in November. DigitalBurn made $0 from EPN in November, which has not happened since I started using them, and well below the $100+ from last month. I've emailed EPN support so I'll see what they say and whether there's a problem.

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

The first full month of statistics tracking on DigitalBurn for a couple of months. There were 11,284 unique visitors in November.

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

After a whoop ass September, where this site brought in a grand total of $151.92, MotorDude.com managed to better that figure in October, bringing in $192.99.

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

MotorDude stunk up the place in terms of traffic, with a more than mediocre 740 unique visits in November. There's a lot of competition in the automotive website world, and there are a lot of people that do it better than I do, so I shouldn't be surprised. My post on the Shelby GT500 Super Snake is by far the most popular post over there.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

* crickets chirping *

In summary, maybe you do get out what you put in?

Time for the goal update again. A little later this month because I was waiting for a couple of figures to finalise. In any case, it was a sad and sorry month for SwollenPickles.com, but a record month in terms of my total overall earnings. Go figure!

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

Do you remember Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of the Titanic? Well that was SwollenPickles.com in October. The site didn't even manage to crack the $100 mark for the month, staggering to a total of $95.02US, compared to the $225 in September. The one positive is that since that is in US dollars and the Aussie dollar has dropped so much, that $95US is equal to around $140 Australian.

Nothing really stood out in terms of revenue in October.

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

Well revenue decreased in October, traffic increased. What a bizarre month! In total there were 23,996 visitors to this site in October compared to 17,767 unique visits in September. A more comprehensive breakdown of the statistics can be found here.

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

Fortunately October wasn't all doom and gloom. DigitalBurn far surpassed it's target bringing in $282.37US for the month, up from $158.10 in September. The eBay Partner Network did quite well as did Commission Junction. The credit really has to go to phpBay Pro. I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again, if you're running WordPress and you haven't purchased this plugin yet, then you are losing money!

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

Unfortunately the tracking code was down for the first week or so of October, so the statistics are a little sketchy. I do know that there were 10,896 unique visits for the 25 days or so the code was live. Based on that, it's probably safe to say that it would have hit the 11,000 visit mark for the month which would be inline with the previous month.

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

After a whoop ass September, where this site brought in a grand total of $151.92, MotorDude.com managed to better that figure in October, bringing in $192.99.

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

There were 945 unique visitors to MotorDude.com in October, down a nudge from 1,168 in September. That's a little disappointing, and indicates that the current level of revenue is probably not sustainable into the long term unless traffic figures pick up.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

Zero change.

In other news...

The forum on my Guitar Effects site has been live for over a month now, and only has three members, including me. It's a little sad right now, but if you're into guitar or anything remotely guitar related, go check out the Guitar Effects Forum.

Apparently the world is in financial crisis. Banking fat cats have paid themselves billions in bonuses while running organizations into the ground, the cheesiest banking jokes known to human kind have done the rounds, yet still Swollen Pickles managed to pick up the ball that it'd dropped in July/August... well almost.

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

August sucked, $129.98 for the month, made August 2008 my worst month in a long time. Fortunately September was an improvement, with Swollen Pickles making an even $225. Still $125 short of the target though.

The revenue mix was spread relatively evenly between Adsense, LinkWorth, ClickBooth and MoreNiche all bringing in some cash.

New affiliate programs I joined in September in an effort to find the perfect mix were Ads4Dough and COPEAC. I've still got a lot to learn.

In September I officially gave up on PerformancingAds because they just weren't performing for me. The reporting is a little underdone as well, currently I have 3 referrals and I can't see if I've made anything from them which isn't ideal.

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

Bizarrely, although dollars earned in September went up, the number of visitors went down to 17,767 unique visits in September, from 18,211 in August. Looking at the analytics, it appears the drop off is largely due to a decrease in 'Stumbles'.

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

Well it seems I stuffed up my reporting for this one last month. I had said I made $81.23 for August, but the final figure was actually $120.85. I hadn't accounted for the delay in reporting from the eBay partner network. I guess if the auction process makes it difficult to report directly at the end of the month. Anyway, I guess I should add the caveat that these figures are subject to change depending on whether or not the eBay figure ends up increasing. With that all said, Digital Burn made $158.10 in September, which was a good effort. phpBay Pro has paid for itself a few more times over.

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

It seems that on the 13 September I did something to the Digital Burn WordPress theme and stuffed up the Google analytics reporting. On only just realised today, so all I can report on is that there were 5,014 unique visits between 1-13 September. Based on that, it's probably safe to say that it would have hit the 11,000 visit mark for the month which would be inline with the previous month.

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

September was a good month for Motor Dude, with that site bringing in a grand total of $151.92. A big effort considering at the start of this calendar year, $50 per month was looking optimistic.

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

There were 1,168 unique visitors to Motor Dude in September, down a nudge from 1,250 in August was still well below the target which is disappointing.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

Zero change.

In other news...

I finally whacked WordPress up on a domain I've had sitting there for a while doing nothing. Viking Idiot dot com isn't ground breaking, but I thought it was about time I did something with it, and got it to earn it's keep. Since the 12 September it's had 2,841 unique visitors. Hasn't made a fortune yet, but at the rate it's travelling it'll have paid for itself in another few weeks.

I also just finished up reading Batman: The Long Halloween which I would highly recommend, especially to you Blankshooting.

Well the goal project continues to roll on, and if you read July's update that figures were down across the board. Unfortunately this trend continued into August. One thing I can say is that this trend mirrors the same time last year to a certain extent, which is interesting. Perhaps it's seasonal?

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

July sucked, with a total of $215.10, however August sucked harder than a V8 powered vacuum cleaner, with Swollen Pickles raking in a grand total of $129.98. Once again the revenue mix was spread, although Adsense definitely dropped off. Performancing Ads haven't been performing on this site, so I'm considering dropping them in favour of either another Adsense block, or perhaps another ProjectWonderful block. The jury is still out.

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

Another below par performance, well under my target. There were 22,862 unique visitors in the month of July. Down from a nudge over 26,000 in June.

Another drop, with Swollen Pickles servicing 18,211 unique patrons in August. This is down by around 4,000 from July, but on the plus side, in August 2007 this site had only 8K unique visitors for the month.

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

A slight increase up to $81.23 for August compared to $69.36 in July. The increase was due to a couple of bigger sales via eBay. Thanks phpBay Pro.

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

Digital Burn is nothing if not consistent, with the past three months all hovering around the 11K mark in terms of unique visits. In August there were 11,177 unique visitors to the site.

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

After Motor Dude's record making effort in July ($197.05 in total), revenue dropped back a little in August, with the site generating a total of $112.25. Both LinkWorth and Text-Link-Ads seem to do ok on that site.

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

Whilst financially August was ok, traffic wise it was a stinker for Motor Dude, with the total number of unique visitors hitting 1,250. I guess if nothing else this shows that you don't always need big traffic numbers to make some money.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

96kgs.

Other news

In other news, my comic blog I started up had 2,432 unique visits on the 10 August. That was pretty cool.

My "10 tips to becoming a Make Money Online sheep" post got picked up by a couple of blogging carnivals which was also cool.

My Squidoo lens on Belly Button Lint is still "Going Strong". It's also ranked #233 in DIY & Hobbies. Add me to Squidoo here and share the love.

Well July 2008 came to an end all too quickly. Not exactly sure where the month went, but what I know is that in terms of the goal project, it was a month of ups and downs. I also had to spend a lazy afternoon revising my excel spreadsheet so I can keep a better track of what's going on.

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

June was a pretty solid month with $306.81, however, July, was not so great. Revenue was down to $215.10. In terms of top earners, there was no standout program. The eBay Partner Network, Shopzilla, LinkWorth, phpBayPro affiliate program and ClickBooth all brought in between $25-40 each, and then there were a few others in the $15-$20 range, including Share-A-Sale.

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

Another below par performance, well under my target. There were 22,862 unique visitors in the month of July. Down from a nudge over 26,000 in June.

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

Digital Burn didn't exactly set the web on fire in monetary terms at least. July was a slow month, raking in $69.36. The drop was noticed largely in the eBay Partner Network, which was well down for the month.

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

Traffic as hit a plateau, with 11,297 unique visitors in July. There were 11,228 unique visitors to DigitalBurn in June, so as you can see, not a lot changed there. To be fair, I don't think I posted on there once during July. Lazy!

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

This site smashed its previous record. July was relatively huge, bringing in $197.05. A good chunk came from LinkWorth, which is proving to be more than handy in bringing in the coin.

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

Record earning month, yet a dismal traffic month, with only 1,769 unique visits. Really need to sort the traffic situation thing out if I want to keep the site viable longer term.

7. Achieve my goal weight of 85kgs.

96kgs.

So there you go. Only a quick update this month. I got to go do the vacuuming. Damn that sucks!

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