My Money Goals Timeline

Early on, there was a time when I had no aspirations for making money with my blog.  However, I did have a thirst to find more traffic, visitors, relationships, and community for my blog.  My aspirations quickly changed as I searched for more knowledge on how to improve my blog.  During the search for information on how to get better results I remember coming across several blogs about blogging and making money online including Darren Rowse’s Problogger and Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneur’s Journey (those are the first two I remember).

After reading through those two blogs and many others I decided that blogging could be a significant source of income.  I devoured heaps of content and even though I never wrote it down I always had several money goals floating around in my head.

My Money Goals Timeline

In late 2007 I decided to monetize my blog with some simple goals in mind.  Those goals were:

Goal #1 – Make enough money to buy a cup of coffee (from Starbucks) – make your first $5 – GOAL ACHIEVED 1/15/2008

• I made my first pennies on October 27th, 2007 with Google AdSense.  I made 8 cents just 4 days after installing AdSense code on my blog.  I was well on my way!
• By the end of 2007 I racked up a whopping $1.48 total through Google AdSense and in addition started using some Amazon Associate Affiliate links, sold my first book,  received a commission of 41 cents from Amazon (I wouldn’t receive another Amazon commission until April 2008), and finishing 2007 with a grand total of $1.89.
• On Januray 14th, 2008 I had my first $1+ day with Google AdSense and on January 15th I’d achieve my goal by accumulating $5.36.  However, Google does not make a payment to you until you clear $100.  I believe Amazon makes a payment after you clear $10

Goal #2 – Make your first $100 – GOAL ACHIEVED 4/22/2008

• It wasn’t long after I made enough money for my first cup of coffee that I would clear the $100 mark.  In mid February 2008 I wrote two landmark articles (for me) that would cause a landslide of traffic.  The first article (with the help of StumbleUpon) pushed me from an average of 100-200 page views a day to over 7000 page views in one day and trickled down over the next couple weeks.  At the end of February, I wrote a second article that found the front page of Fark.com.  The first day on Fark I received over 5000 page views and the second day over 25,000!  Throughout the rest of March my total daily page views fluctuated between 1K and 5K.  March was the first month I cleared $100 in Google AdSense earnings and I’d receive my first Google AdSense check on April 22nd, 2008 for $168.52

Goal #3 - Make enough money in a month to pay for gas ~$150 - GOAL ACHIEVED! 9/31/2009

• I cleared the $100 mark per month in February 2008.  However, there would be a drop off in my blogging efforts for a good part of 2008.  I slowed on my social marketing efforts and my content production was not as regular.  My statistics for the first time started to decrease rather than increase.  By June 2008 I rededicated myself and started producing more content however I concentrated more on SEO and less on social marketing.  My numbers started increasing and by January 2009 my AdSense total for the month was regularly over $100.
• In early September 2009 I decided to rethink my Google AdSense placement and reviewed my entire blog.  I noticed I was not utilizing AdSense on all my pages and received a decent amount of traffic on category pages and tag pages.  I added AdSense to these pages made a few other changes including adding a link unit and removing AdSense from the sidebar and the end of articles.   All these changes resulted in my first month over $150.  My September 2009 monthly total was $158.51.

Goal #4 - Make enough money in a month to make car payments ~$500 – NOT YET ACHIEVED est. 4/30/2010

As of today (2/16/2010) my monthly average is around $250.  My traffic is steadily increasing, but at the current rate I’d have to double my traffic to clear the $500.  I’m pretty sure I can do this much quicker with current traffic levels and I’m just under monetizing my blog.  I think a few changes might get me over the hump without an increase in traffic. Here are a few things I plan on doing this month.

• Add the Ninja Affiliate Plugin to my blog – This will add affiliate links to my blog based on keywords.
• Revisit Commission Junction for better affiliate programs then Amazon Affiliates.
• Try adding Chitika Advertisements to the blog.
• Optimize the placement of Google AdSense on my blog
• Update my theme with Advertising as a key element of the theme

Goal #5 – Make enough money in a month to make mortgage payments ~$2000 – NOT YET ACHIEVED est. 6/30/2010

This a more long term goal, but I already have an idea on how I will achieve this number.

• The idea of a product has been bouncing around my head for quite sometime now.  If I can summon the will power to launch a product by the beginning of June 2010 I believe I can clear the $2000 mark with the help of a good product launch.  As time goes on I’ll share my ideas, experiences, and results.

Goal #6 – Make enough money in a month to quit your day job ~$5,000 – NOT YET ACHIEVED est. 12/31/2010

A second long term goal that I have some ideas about.

• While multiple product launches this year are not out of the question I have some ideas on marketing my product to bring in more customers using a hybrid online/offline approach.  As time goes on I’ll expand upon these ideas.

Focus On Your Blogging Goals

So that’s it!  That’s my money timeline.  It’s been bouncing around in my head since the first day I monetized my site and today is the first day I laid it all down on paper (or typed it to the monitor).  Hopefully this helps you set your own money goals.  As I’ve mentioned before in my February 2010 goal article, it’s a good idea to break your goals down into smaller chunks and that is exactly what I did by creating an initial more achievable goal of $5 and finishing with the enormous end goal of $5K a month.  I also set deadlines and charted a few short ideas on how I might be able to achieve my unfinished goals.

Well, if you read through my money timeline then you can see that I’m half way there and hopefully I’ve accomplished Goal #6 by the end of 2010.

How about you?  Do you have money goals?  Have you set yourself a timeline?