It's pretty late and I'm getting tired but I thought I'd publish a post and let you all know what I'm up to. The move went pretty smoothly. I've got my own bedroom, office and bathroom which I love. I've been so much more productive since I've had my own office. Even so, I'm still way behind on my new year's resolutions. My plans on how to reach those resolutions has also changed.
The Plan
In my last post, I came up with a plan for making money after I moved. The main part of my plan was to start a blog and turn it into an authority site. The second part of my plan was to work on my niche websites and get them ranking high in Google. The last and least important part of my plan was to write a bunch of InfoBarrel article.
Well, the plan has changed. The new plan is to make the InfoBarrel articles the main focus. I have realized that my InfoBarrel articles are making around $0.75 per article per month. This has been consistent every month for the past year. I am now planning on writing 400 articles a month for the next 3 months. This will give me 1,200 articles which should translate to around $1,000 a month in earnings (hopefully more during the holidays). If my articles do hold up and make that much a month, I'll continue to write 400 articles a month until I reach my goal of $2,500 a month.
The authority website started out great. I designed a great looking theme and came up with a bunch of ideas for posts. I wrote 3 posts and decided to focus on InfoBarrel instead. I am still planning on posting to the blog but it's not my main focus anymore. I'm going to save it for when I'm making enough money from other sources so that I can focus on content rather than making money.
I'm also going to let my niche sites just sit around and make money. I'm not going to bother to work on them right now. Whatever they make is what they'll make.
New Year's Resolutions Update
1. Be at $2,500 a month with Adsense before the end of the year -
My Adsense income increased to around $175 last month so that's encouraging. I might be able to hit $1,000 a month by the end of the year.
2. Pay off car loan - $3,400 - This is going to happen. I have less than $1,000 to pay on it and I won $500 in a sweepstakes last week. Next month I'll pay around $550 and I should have it completely paid off.
3. Save $5,000 towards the down payment on a house - Nope. I have around $5 in a savings account towards this.
4. Set up a dating profile (I don't have to actually go on dates but I want to at least get used to contacting guys online)
- I'm not even sure how to go about doing this. I would like to date but I would prefer to have my own place and live closer to town. I would also like to complete resolution #5 first.
5. Lose 50 lbs - around 1 lb a week - I need to start eating healthier but it's hard. I love food too much. I should also exercise more. I'll try to come up with a plan next week.
6. Pay off 1 of my student loans - Uh...I filed for a forbearance or deferment or whatever it is called. I don't have to pay any of my student loans until December 7. I'm going to try to pay off one of my student loans by the end of the year but I'll have to wait until my car gets paid off.
7. Go to a Vikings game - I'd like to get my dad tickets for his birthday but I'll either have to win tickets or try to come up with some money after my car loan is paid off.
8. Build a 3 month emergency fund - I have $15 saved up. I don't think that would cover me in an emergency.
9. Read 2 books a month - I've read 2 1/2 books so far this year. My parents want to go on a road trip at the beginning of September so I should have plenty of time for reading. I still don't think I'm going to reach this goal unless I take a week off just to read.
10. Keep up to date on my sweepstakes - After we moved, I kept up to date on my sweepstakes until around July 15 when I got too busy from InfoBarrel. The $500 I won last week will come in handy. I really need to get caught back up.
As you can see, my resolutions aren't going too well. I think I will pick one resolution to focus on this month. I think I'm going to try to get the car loan paid off completely this month. This means I need to sell a bunch of stuff or write articles for upfront pay. Not having that car loan will help me complete some of my other resolutions. I'm going to post an update in September and let you know how I did at paying off my car loan.
