2009 started off with a bang.  My eBay affiliate business was netting around $300 a month in January, $400 in February, and was set to earn $500 in March.  eBay, however, decided to cut off my account in March for no good reason.  After months of dispute, they never paid me in March and my affiliate account has been deactivated.  I have no idea why my account was flagged as all my sites stuck to their terms of service and all sites were original and clean.  Such is life, right?  I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot and this is just another blow to their reputation, in my opinion.

So, with that stream of income cut off, what’s one to do?  Well, it’s a good thing I had other moneys coming in from other sources.  I netted about $1000 last year from referrals and the few bucks I made from eBay.  Though I didn’t set any goals for 2009 and 2010 is already shaping up to be a very busy year, I’ll do my best to keep blogging and I hope to make 50% more this year than last.  Let’s see how things go and I’ll keep you posted!

a

Out of the laundry list of metrics from the Daily Blog Tips post, I have selected 5 that I think are important to this blog at this stage in the game.  This blog is only 2 months old and it has already seen an increasing number of visitors on a daily basis, but I know the numbers could be much better.  That’s why I selected these 5 metrics for 2008.

Daily Visits

Currently this blog averages 32 unique visitors per day, up from 18 on its first month.  I know that the quality of my blog posts are good, so I need to work on marketing the site and meeting other bloggers to help me raise the number of unique visitors to this site.  I don’t think it would be all that difficult or unlikely to hope for a 10x increase in visitors, so by the end of 2008, I would like to see at least 320 unique daily visitors to this blog.

RSS Subscribers

Another metric dealing with the visibility of this site, I want to keep raising the number of readers that subscribe to my RSS feed.  I feel that an RSS readership can help to spread the word about my site in addition to adding another income stream for when this site starts receiving more visitors.  Currently, I have exactly 9 RSS readers.  This number has fluctuated to 15 in recent weeks and I think it will continue to rise as the site gains momentum.   By the end of 2008, I want this site to have no less than 200 RSS subscribers.  If you’re not yet an RSS subscriber, sign up today!

Weekly Posts

As a measure of my stamina as a blogger, I will keep track of the number of posts I do per week.  I currently do not keep track of this stat but think that I write 4 or 5 times per week.  I think this is a good number but would like to average 6 posts per week for 2008.  This may be in the form of multiple posts per day, one post per day, or a combination thereof.  With 6 posts per week and 52 weeks in a year, that means at least 312 posts next year.

Alexa Rank

Alexa measures the popularity of a given site but you can only see detailed stats for a site if it is one of the top 100,000 sites.  Currently, LearnHow2Earn.com is sitting at 881,320 and at the end of 2008 I would like to see this site in the top 100,000, according to Alexa’s rank.  With a rank better than 100,000, this site will be in good enough shape to start bringing in some money through affiliate offers and advertising sales.

Monthly Revenues

As of today, December 19, 2007, this website has not made me any money yet. Although I have a few ads running on the sidebar, these are affiliate ads that I put there to see if people clicked on them.  Given that I have received a few clicks from those ads, I have not made any sales yet.  If I am able to reach my goals of 320 unique visitors and 200 RSS readers by the end of 2008, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to expect this blog to sell advertising spots, “pay per post” type reviews, and affiliate products.  With 320 unique daily readers (up to 520 if you factor in the RSS subscribers), there is no reason why I should not make money with the site and I think that I can position myself nicely to make at least $1000 a month from this website.

There you have it, my goals for 2008.  I have made a list, printed it out several copies and hung them around places where I will see them on a daily basis.  I enjoy sharing my ideas and experiences with my readers, appreciate all of the comments that I have received and look forward to meeting more people in the year to come.  Thanks to all who have come to this site, those who have subscribed to the RSS feed, and those who have linked to my posts.  I wish you all a great end of the year, safe travels, good holidays, and a successful 2008!

a