The Google Factor

Google’s Penguin algorithm change affected my most lucrative sites. I believe I had additional problems caused by the many AdSense error messages. As a result my income dropped before Penguin was released.

Enough of the intro, here’s the scoop. In March I earned $3,237. In April my income dropped to $1,936. That’s a drop of $1,301. We’re not talking small potatoes here.

Rainy Day Fund

Because of the fickle nature of earning money online, over a year ago I created a rainy day fund. At the end of each month, I place the equivalent of 10% of my online earnings. Some months the fund is well fed and other months, like this one, it gets a smaller contribution.

The fund was created to hold me over in the event my income takes a royal plummet like it did last year when eHow closed the Writers Compensation Program. Last year between March and April my income plummeted from $2,799 to $1,338 (de ja vu all over again).

Onward and Upward

My passion for earning money as an online writer has waned significantly over the past few months. I still place content online, but I’m nowhere near as prolific as I once was. My new interests are of the hands on tactile nature with online writing as a secondary or tertiary add on.

I’ve come to the conclusion that life is way too short to force myself into a mold that no longer fits. Who knows, maybe over time my passion will return and the once comfortable mold will become comfortable again, but it the meanwhile, it’s time for me to explore other things.

What I absolutely love about online writing, however, is that even though my interests have changed, the money (although in a lesser amount) is still coming in. How was your April?  I hope it was better than mine.

How Penguin Affected Me

According to Google, the algorithm went into affect on April 24th. Well, I’ve got to say that I noticed a change in my earnings on the last day of March and my earnings have been steadily declining since then.

My decline didn’t have much to do with the Penguin, my issues had to do with tons and tons of error messages generated by the Google AdSense code. For some reason, my sites suddenly started to generate errors and the odd thing about it was I hadn’t touched those sites in months.

Culprit of the Error Messages

The first wave of messages occurred because the code suddenly wanted to find a file located in a folder called doubleclick in my blogs’ root directory. In an attempt to correct the problem, I created a folder called doubleclick and searched Google to download the missing file the code needed.

Whew! All was good for about 24 to 48 hours until the same error messages started appearing again. The error messages weren’t so bad but they had an affect on my income. You see, the 404 “File not Found” errors were generated after someone clicked on an AdSense ad and the subsequent page wouldn’t load.

The subsequent page was the advertiser’s page, but somehow the AdSense code looked for the page on my sites. Of course they wouldn’t find the pages on my site because I don’t have the advertiser’s pages physically located on my blogs.

After further investigation, it seems these errors were generated by image ads. So, to put an end to the nonsense, I modified my code so AdSense would only display text ads. Problem solved (or work around implemented).

Back to the Penguin

It took me a few weeks to figure out my error problem, so by then Penguin waddled into my life. After doing a little reading up on Penguin I made one change to my websites. I moved the 300 x 250 ad from within the top of my posts to the right sidebar.

Somewhere on the Google AdSense Webmaster blog, there was information about the ratio of ads to text above the fold. By moving the ad to the sidebar, more of my content appeared above the fold and the ad still had a prominent place.

When penguin was first implemented I noticed a momentary drop in traffic and search engine ranking, but things seem to be balancing out and the traffic and page rank have normalized (whatever normal is).

Penguin and My Online Strategy

My online strategy is still the same now as it was when I first started 5 years ago. Write quality content. I’m sure social networking and good backlinks help, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a social networker and I don’t actively seek backlinks.

Maybe my time as an active online writer is drawing to an end. I’ve found what makes me happy as an online writer and my “style” may be obsolete. I like to write about certain subjects and I like to write in a fashion to help people. That’s it.

I don’t like to worry about hats (whether black or white), popularity, gaming the system, backlinking strategies and the like. I’m quite selfish in that I want to write about what excites me and hopefully it will help someone else. Sometimes its lucrative and sometimes not.

So, when Google rolls out the Otter, the Hyena, the Cheetah or the Petunia, my writing style and strategy will remain the same. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

I did spend some time writing on the Internet in March, but I placed my work on low or non-paying sites. Of the 27 articles I wrote, 21 were placed on low paying sites and 4 articles were placed on sites that don’t pay at all.

The non-paying sites don’t pay because I haven’t placed ads on them yet. I’m looking to experiment with different ad networks to see how well they pay. I’m still in the research stage. While I’m researching, I’m slowly adding content.

The Beauty of Past Work

If it were not for the work that I put in over the past 5 years, I wouldn’t have been able to earn over $3,200 of residual income in March of 2012.

I know I’ve said it before, but it’s something that’s worth repeating. Even if you are strapped for cash and must write for up front pay, do yourself a favor and squeeze out some time to write a few residual articles. You won’t get an immediate income boost, but it will grow over time.

Losing a Little Steam

It looks like April isn’t starting off where March left off. My numbers seem to be a little lower, but it’s really too early to tell. In the meanwhile, I’ll continue writing at my current pace. It seems to be working for me right now as I slowly regain my writing mojo.

How did March treat you?

December 2011 was my highest residual income month of $3,037. That was the first month where I snuck in the back door of the Double O Club. The membership was temporary. The following month my income dropped a bit below required $100 per day. In January I earned $2,978.52.

I got a little further away from the DOC in February with a number of $2,778.35. All in all, these are not bad numbers, but they weren’t moving in a positive direction. If the remainder of March plays out the way the first third of the month is playing, I’ll be a card-carrying member of the Double O Club, but the Internet is fickle, so we’ll wait and see.

Losing Interest?

I can’t say that I’ve totally lost interest in online writing, but it hasn’t been providing the same spark and excitement that  it once did. I still write online, but am finding I need to spend much more time offline. Maybe I’m undergoing the 7-year itch two years early. Who knows?

Maybe instead of writing, it’s time for me to get back to my art supplies and draw. I’m not quite sure which direction to go, but I do know that forcing what isn’t there is not good.

I know I’m not the only online person to undergo such feelings. I’d be interested to hear from “old timers” who had to change direction for a while. It might give me the shot in the arm that I need.

About Writing Books

I’ve found that my book’s audience is folks who are just starting out and are not willing to spend hard-earned cash on an ebook that might not provide what they’re looking for. The folks who bought my book have a general idea of what’s going on online and purchased my book looking for insider tips or bits of information they haven’t thought of as yet.

So, to better get the information in front of the people who really need it, I’ve decided to take on a different distribution approach. To that end, I’ve refunded the purchase price of my Make Money Blogging book to all those who purchased it.

Instead of selling the book, I’m giving it away for free.

How to Make Money by Giving Free Books Away

Here’s where my books can serve several purposes. After reviewing the download activity on my first free book, I realize that there were several thousand copies of the book downloaded since writing it back in August of 2010.  Not a ton of downloads, but not bad considering it wasn’t marketed. There were enough downloads for me to believe it’s making its way around the Internet and hopefully helping newbie writers.

Those downloads tell me that there is an audience out there that might be receptive to targeted links from individuals who would like to get the word out about their blog, product or service. Yep, I’m talking about targeted advertising.

Thinking Out of the Box

My book is several chapters long. At the end of each chapter, I’ve created an advertisement page. On that page, I am selling ad space to anyone interested in getting a little exposure (I’m talking about links to blogs, affiliate marketing and the like).

Since I don’t do loud and obnoxious, the ads won’t be either. Basically I’m seeking people who wish to purchase ad space or links that are synergistic with the information I’m providing in my book. I’m not looking for flashy pictures or graphics that would detract from the book’s content.

Pricing for Ebook Advertising

Before I go into the pricing, I want to make this point clear. I was leaning towards giving the book away for free whether or not it is financially supported by ads. But, if someone is interested in purchasing ad space, here’s the pricing (which I think is reasonable). Ads should be 75 words or less:

• 3 Months for $9.99
• 6 Months for $18.98
• 9 Months for $26.97
• 12 Months for $33.97

(Less than $3.50 a month)

Why Quarterly Ads?

I’m trying quarterly ads (and am leaning towards semi-annual ads) because it allows me to weed out dead links and remove ads that are no longer valid. By using Broken Link Checker plugin, I’m becoming painfully aware just how quickly links become obsolete.

Quarterly (or semi-annual) ads will force me to keep the book and ads up-to-date and relevant (Once I’m finished with the Make Money Blogging book, I’m going to take on the task of updating the So You Want to be a Freelance Writer book).

In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think the advertising cost is too high. For less than four dollars a month you can get your link into a book that will be freely distributed and shared on the Internet.

Let the Experiment Begin

I’ve set up the basic groundwork to start accepting ads for the second quarter. The cut off deadline is 48 hours prior to the end of the quarter (in other words March 29th). At that time I will make the necessary changes and release the revised free ebook on April 1, 2012.

Keep in mind that with something new there will be glitches and work-arounds. Please bear with me as I navigate through these unchartered waters. I welcome you to join me in this new adventure.

If all works out well, it will be a win-win-win situation. Newbies get free information, bloggers/affiliate marketers can advertise to a targeted audience, and I…well, I can make a couple of bucks and get my book in front of the eyes that need to read it. I think it’s a win all the way around.

Wish me luck!