* I’m kept track of my 2007 HART-Empire Earnings Online ..

Here is the link: HART-Empire Network Earnings Spreadsheet Document

The earnings are on an “Accrual” basis, where I’m documenting what I’ve earned, but monies will usually come in the following month, or (if ever) when I reach the minimum threshold for release of my earnings for payment. The expenditures are on a “Cash” basis, as I pay something related to my online earnings, I just load up the spreadsheet and modify it.

Summary of Gross Earnings 2007

* January 2007 – $344.61
* February 2007 – $372.37
* March 2007 – $492.41
* April 2007 – $491.85
* May 2007 – $620.99
* June 2007 – $632.47
* July 2007 – $672.66
* August 2007 – $701.78
* September 2007 – $706.09
* October 2007 – $801.12
* November 2007 – $859.20
* December 2007 – $863.36

** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-Dec/2007) – $7,558.91
* Average (YTD) $20.71 per day or, $629.91 per month
*** Still not enough to quit my day job!~

Reflection

Year to date NET income shows me making $1,228.84 profit … *shrugs* .. I have no idea where it is now!

Analysis Of Revenues

On an accrual basis .. 7558.91/3665.00 .. it would seem that my revenues were 206.25% of 2006 in 2007. But the reality is that the private ads figure in 2006 was actually a pro-rata amount that I received in the fall of 2005 .. so, actual earnings GENERATED in 2007 was really 3665-1500 = $2,165.00 … So, in that case – my 2007 generated revenues were really 349% of 2006!!

So, I suppose I should be happy.

Analysis of Expenditures

I didn’t keep track of expenses ‘publicly’ for 2006, but I did for 2007. Here is a summary with an explanation and commentary.

* Domain Renewals – $306.40 – This was for renewing all my domains, in the month prior before they became due. I just renewed them for 1-year at a time, and the average cost was $8.95 each through Chuga Domains. I have a big hit every January April and October each year .. but in 2008 I might renew them for longer periods of time, like 2 years or 5 years.

* Domain Registrations – $256.86 – For this expenditure, I was actually registering MORE domains .. but, I think I’m done registering new domains now for 2008!

* ISP Host Providers – Old ISP’s – $229.95 – This was for Blackun and Acenet before I moved in June 2007 and in each case was for overages (blacksun $180.00 in May/07) and interim monthly (acenet) before I decided where to move to.

* Dedicated Server Costs – $1,482.51 – Ouch! But, Its now costing me $263/month to host all of my sites now. Per month. Every month. It’s definitely my highest fixed costs per month.

* EVDO Laptop Access – $674.19 – Pricelist! That is, while I’m out at the beach every summer and there is no internet access. This is basically like a Cell Phone Contract I am tied into – at $67.80/month for 6 months and $49.95 for 6 months in the off-season. It’s definitely a necessity during the summer months and quite a burden and aggravation reminder everytime I pay a bill every few months in the winter.

* Advertising – $428.67 – I don’t feel I got any benefit from buying text-link-ads on blogs around the ‘net – based on my refer stats. I might have received about 10 clicks. Although, I did spend $100.00 of this amount at StumbleUpon Ads .. which, at 5 cents per click (or 2000 stumbles) to my Halloween site that I received no sales or affiliated leads from them.

* Miscellaneous Business Opportunities – $511.83 – I call it this, for software plugins that I have purchased, maybe ebooks that I buy or seem worthwhile to support the author etc.

* Design & Sub-contract – $940.00 – This was towards the cost of a new Network wide Template .. it is not complete, and still in progress

* Content and Sub-contract – $1.118.94 – This was for external content or designs purchased for my network. For instance, would include private label articles (PLR) and designs or scripts or blogs that now basically make up the http://HARTmarket.com group of subdomains and sites. Sites were created to tie in directly with affiliated sites but, I have yet to really market them.

* Writers and Sub-Contract – $380.07 – This is for the writers representing 1-1/2 months and, no there will not be any future breakdowns. I foresee this section to be my biggest future expense, although I hope that some shared revenue payouts are added to this figure – which would make both myself and the bloggers very happy!

* Ebay Activity Fees – $5.65 – Can’t remember what this was all about, I suppose I paid off my ebay balance.

>>> Total Expenses $ 6,330.07

>>> Net Income from Blogging – $1,228.84 – or, 16.26%

Reflections about 2007

I feel that as much as I think I should have grown financially in some exponential way to make me rich beyond all my expectations (*g*) … I am happy the way the year finally progressed. In the month of June 2007 .. I moved and combined all of my blogs into one central location and obtained a Virtual Private Server (VPS). I thought that would solve all of my traffic and bandwidth issues but it was a lesson in Hard Knox learned that CPU and computer resources have little to do with the bandwidth and traffic – albeit, somewhat cause and effect related. Bottom line – the VPS wasn’t good enough and it took until the beginning of September 2007 to finally convert to a dedicated server. Since that time – I have double the traffic on all my blogs on the server.

As I mentioned last month .. I finally hired writers that were not related to me (or friends in real life) to write for blogs in the “Battling For Health” series. I hope to continue until all positions are filled .. and leave the content to more qualified writers!

In October 2007 .. I hired two writers .. Gloria Gamat for the Battling Arthritis Blog .. and Lesly Maranan for the Battling Cancer Blog. For January 2008 .. I hired another writer .. Michael Davidsen for the Battling Alzheimer Blog .. and another one starting prior to February 2008 (to be announced).

Predictions for 2008

I hope we are all prosperous, of course! However, in real terms at this time – I hope my traffic doubles every quarter (for the HART-Empire Network as a whole) and revenues double every two quarters!

So, in other words: In December 2007 .. we had 52,650 unique visitors with 83,979 page views (1.6) .. so that would mean that I would like to see the uniques grow to
(-0) 52650
(3) 52650+52650=105300
(6) 105300+105300=210600
(9) 210600+210600=421200
(12) 421200+421200=842400 uniques for the month of December 2008
>> and 842400×1.6= 1,347,840 pageviews or more actually, if we can better that ratio!

and
(-0) 7558.91
(6) 7558.91+7558.91=15,117.82
(12) 15117.82+15117.82= $30,235.64 total gross earnings for 2008!

>> Well, that would be nice – however, as we all know it’s not how much GROSS you make – it’s how much NET you keep! And, by the end of 2008 – well, I still dream and hope that I can make at least an extra $3500 saved savings to take my wife on a really great vacation after next year’s Christmas Celebrations.