Anyway, it’s a new year and many of us are back with lofty goals.

My goals for this year aren’t too lofty. I want to increase my income without increasing my workload. I want a sustainable writing schedule and most of all; I want to continue enjoying what I do.

Looking Back

2011 was a good year. I had been smacked around a bit by the Panda but I believe I landed on my feet. I ended the year by achieving another milestone. I managed to reach the $3,000 residual income mark.

I even managed to become a temporary ticket holder to the Double O Club. I had a nice ride for the first 25 days of December. I was a full-fledged card-carrying member of the DOC right up until Christmas day. The day after I had to hand relinquish my membership card because my daily average dropped below $100 a day. While $96, $97, $98 and $99 a day aint bad, it doesn’t cover the daily cost of the Double O Club ticket.

Oh well, there’s always 2012.

Article Count and Earnings

In 2010 I wrote 753 articles in order to earn a total of $26,736.59. In 2011, I wrote 390 articles to earn $29,279.77 *(that’s not a final number since earnings are still trickling in).

I reduced my writing by nearly 50% and increased my earnings by about 10%. Not too bad considering the Panda beating most of us endured in 2011.

BTW, 99% of my 2011 earnings were from residual sources. Going forward, my goal is to make 2012 a 100% residual year. The only way I’ll accept up-front writing assignments is if the offer is just too good to refuse (and I mean it really has to be a good offer).

Secret to Residual Earnings

What’s my residual income secret? Well, the secret is to stick with it. I’m no better a writer than any of you guys. As a matter of fact, I’ve read some of your work and you guys are good. Just stick with it, keep learning and the money will follow.

It’s a brand spanking New Year…let’s make the best of it!

Many moons ago I created my online playground, Tidbits and Stuff. You guys know the story. It was a hand-coded site, then a WordPress site, then a Joomla site and now…I’m converting it back to a WordPress site. I expect the process to take a month or two.

I learned a lot since March of 2006 when I first created the site. This site, as you know, has been beat down, picked back up and then Pandalized. It has been ignored, plagiarized and the object of constant experimentation. Tidbits has been one of my greatest teachers.

Paid to Learn

Over the years I’ve earned a bit of money from the site. Some years more money than others, but it consistently earned each month (earnings have dropped since being pawed by Panda).

When I first created the site I didn’t know I could earn money from it. It was a labor of love. Then I learned I could earn money from it and took the  “let’s add as much content to the site as possible” route. Sound familiar?

To populate my site with fast content I used free article directories. Not knowing any better, I used Digg and Reddit to gain quick traffic. I was brand new back then and didn’t realize I was spamming the social media sites.

My efforts gained results. I received record traffic and my earnings increased. All was going fine until one day, while on vacation, I checked my stats and the bottom fell out. Traffic dropped and so did the income. Tidbits was nowhere to be found on Google. My heart was sick (not to mention that Digg kicked me to the curb)!

When You Know Better…

To use Maya Angelou’s phrase (as spoken several times by Oprah Winfrey), “When you know better, you’ll do better.” Now as I look back at my major blunders, I understand why Tidbits never holds on to Google favor. If I were a search engine, I would Pandalize it too.

I stopped using article directory content on the site, but I’ve got hundreds of old articles that need to be removed. Additionally, the site is visually unappealing, which brings me to another lesson: When you find a tool that works for you, work it. Become an expert on it. Spend time learning the nuances and the quirks. By mastering a tool, you’ll reduce your effort and maximize your results.

Playing with Joomla was fun, but non productive. Joomla was too much of a tool for my needs. WordPress, on the other hand, is a nice comfortable fit.

Closing the Circle

I’ve returned to my first online love and am in the process of revamping Tidbits and Stuff. The difference this time is I’m approaching it with a different philosophy. I’m applying the philosophy that I’ve been developing over the past 4 ½ years as an online writer (online writing has transformed my life in many ways).

Slow, steady and honesty wins the race. I want long-lasting results. If I had taken this approach initially, Tidbits would only need a few nips and tucks. Instead I’ve got to perform major surgery in order to transform it into the site I want. Don’t read that as a complaint. It is a learning experience and I love playing around with themes, colors, images and of course, creating content.

I’m back to where I was 4 ½ years ago; playing with a site that I created out of love and taking it to a new and improved level. If I’m lucky, I’ll have it done by January. However, with the holidays upon us February seems to be a more realistic target.

I can’t help but understand why you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The old dog has been around the block enough times to realize the tricks aren’t new. They just have a new façade. Why spend the time trying to master a new trick when the tricks only work for a short time?

In 2011 my word for the year was focus. My goal was to focus on residual income instead of up front pay. My word for 2012 is sustainability; only work on projects that have a long and enjoyable shelf life.

BTW: If you don’t have an online playground, I strongly suggest you create one.  It will teach you more than any guru can.

In reviewing my numbers I see that my overall traffic is down. I did a quick analysis of my top 6 sites and have found an average decrease in page views of 15% and a 17% decrease in visitors.

The lower traffic could be a result of the Panda algorithm change or it could be the result of old content. I haven’t spent much time posting new content on my sites this month. As a matter of fact, I’ve added 19 new pieces of content to my sites. 15 of the new pieces of content were posts here on NJFM, and I’ve shared in the past that NJFM is not my road to riches (far from it).

I’ve been spending my time working on projects that will help to shield me and my income from Panda fluctuations and other search engine modifications.

Effects of Less Traffic

Now that I’ve analyzed the lack of traffic and the cause thereof, it’s time for me to look at the income from my top 6 sites to see if the income trended accordingly.

Much to my surprise, the income didn’t follow the traffic. The income from my top 6 online properties is up 14% over last month’s. To what do I attribute this? Well, I believe a large portion can be attributed to adding the authorized sites to my AdSense account.

The rest I’ve got to attribute to changing some of the AdSense ad blocks. The first modification (authorized sites) took a total of 5 minutes or less to implement. The ad block changes took a little longer because I had to change each site. In total, it took a couple of hours to implement.

Sharpening the Sword

I’m reading several books by Dr. Steven R. Covey. If you have time, I strongly suggest you pick up his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I’ve got to warn you, this book is not mental candy. It will cause you to think, reflect and change.

In his books he talks about sharpening the sword, which means retooling, sharpening your skills, learning new tools and taking care of the items/tools used on your journey to success.

Although it is my goal to reduce my reliance on Google and Google AdSense, it is a tool in my online writing arsenal. While I’m creating new venues and working on new projects, it is to my advantage to sharpen my AdSense tool to make it work better for me. I truly believe that if it were not for the sharpening of the sword, November would have been much worse. Instead, it’s my best month for online residual earnings.

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for NJFM’s Motivation for Writers Newsletter. A dose of motivation will be sent to your inbox every Monday.

I had always shied away from large AdSense blocks because I never wanted them to take up too much of the screen real estate. However, the change in real estate from 300×250 to 336×280 is barely noticeable.

Results of Changing Ad Size

Since I had made other AdSense changes right around the same time, I had to pay attention to the click through rate (CTR) instead of the overall change in income.

Comparing this month’s CTR prior to the change and the CTR after the change, my CTR average increased by a little over 3%. That may not sound like much, but a 3% increase over time ads up.

My hubby refers to golf as a game of inches. Earning money online is very similar. Sometimes (very rarely) you hit a hole in one, but most time it’s tweaking and improving one stroke at a time.

I’m off to tweak the rest of my blogs.

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for NJFM’s Motivation for Writers Newsletter. A dose of motivation will be sent to your inbox every Monday.

His comment inspired me to back up a bit and outline my inner struggle with residual vs. up front income. You see, early on I realized the value of residual income but real-life situations made it impossible for me to jump 100% into the residual income arena. I’m sure you all understand. We all have bills to pay, mouths to feed and children to clothe.

It’s impossible to pay bills, buy clothes or food on future promises. You need cold hard cash and you needed immediately.

Squirreling Away Time

When I came to the decision that residual income was way to go, I had to give up a few things. I had to give up some immediate cash. I also gave up a higher income. I know for a fact that I could have earned a lot more money early on if I had continued to write for up front pay. Eventually I would have sought out higher earning gigs and spent my time seeking and writing.

On the flip side, I chose the residual path because I didn’t want to continue writing more and more. Writers tend to get burned out when they’re not following their passion. I’ve found I could write for money for a certain amount of time but eventually I hit the wall. When faced with the wall, it’s impossible to write another word.

Residual income is a nice blanket to have when facing a wall.

Time and Patience

Below are numbers taken from my spreadsheet, which tracks my passive/active earning percentages. This section shows how I wrestled with passive vs. active income from 2007 to November 2011. You will note 2010 was a particularly tough year for me. I spent way too much time on active income.

At the end of 2010 I made a vow to myself. In December of 2010 I wrote the following on my spreadsheet and have held true to it, sort of:

eHow is no longer an option and Suite has been Pandalized, so now I concentrate exclusively on my own sites.

I know the year is not over yet but I do want to share some numbers. The numbers below outline my income/article count from January to mid November 2011:

In case you haven’t figured it out, the active income came from Demand Studios. As you can see, it’s really foolish for me to write for up front pay unless I get a minimum of $71.29 per article. I’m also at the point in my freelance writing career where $71 to write for someone else is just not enough. Remember, when you write for somebody else you don’t get to set the rules. When I write for myself I make up the rules.

A Personal Decision

You can float around the Internet reading forums and blog posts about the dangers of writing for content sites. It’s nice to read what other people think, but until you make your own decision and choose your own path, you’re burning valuable time.

While $25,000 in residual income may not be enough for a family to live on, but as my dad would say, it’s better than a stick in the eye.

Things to take from this post:

• You have to decide what kind of freelance writing career you want.
• You have to implement your plan of action and follow it (tweak it when necessary).
• Track your progress. This helps you to know whether or not you’re moving in the right direction.
• Keep planting residual seeds.
• Be patient.  Residual income takes time.

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for NJFM’s Motivation for Writers Newsletter. A dose of motivation will be sent to your inbox every Monday.