• scissors
    March 26th, 2009HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies

    Have you been receiving this error message?

    Downloading update from wordpress.org/extend/some-plugin.zip
    Download failed.: name lookup timed out
    Installation Failed

    Ever since I upgraded all my blogs to WordPress 2.7.1 .. I have been getting this error message. I was seeing it sometimes on a few 2.6+ upgrades except the error message said:

    Downloading update from wordpress.org/extend/some-plugin.zip
    Download failed.: Could not create Temporary file
    Installation Failed

    This also occurs when I was searching for NEW plugins with the new Plugin Browser/Installer functionality. What I have been doing since 2.7.1 is just keeping all the plugins current on my hard drive in a folder called .. c:\2009-latest-wordpress\wp-content\plugins\ and using FTP to just upgrade all the various blogs that I have. I suppose you can still do it this way, but it’s nice to be able to upgrade from within your wordpress without an FTP program.

    You can really get frustrated trying to find the solution in the wordpress forums because the moderators really suck in their ability to communicate with people who are really having problems – not too mention you are lucky if you can even find a solution from a moderator because they are so under-manned….

    But – I did find one possible solution

    wordpress.org/support/topic/225437?replies=10
    – venik4 –

    WP 2.7 has a bug that has to do with DNS name resolution. As a workaround, add the following to your local /etc/hosts:

    72.233.56.139 downloads.wordpress.org

    Unfortunately for me – I personally tried to add this to my local /etc/hosts file and this did NOT work for me. So, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

    However … this did work for me – and I am using Firefox:

    Top Menu
    – TOOLS
    — OPTIONS
    — PRIVACY
    —- EXCEPTIONS (where you allow cookies)
    And I added this line in the field:
    downloads.wordpress.org
    —- Click Allow

    I am now able to automatically upgrade my plugins and older versions of WordPress and this worked as a fix for me. I would normally add a disclaimer like “I hope this doesn’t screw anything up for me” but, it’s just too annoying NOT to be able to upload and upgrade plugins at will – so I don’t care.

    Tags: , ,
  • scissors
    March 21st, 2009HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies

    Canon PowerShot A2000 IS Digital Camera

    a2000is_586x225

    Inside its sleek, pared down design, this top-of-the-line PowerShot A2000 IS is packed with easy-to-use features. You’ve got a 10.0-megapixel resolution and a 6x Optical Zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer for big, beautiful prints and superb stability. To keep subjects looking their best, the DIGIC III Image Processor with Canon Face Detection handles the technical details – automatically. An Easy Mode allows you to concentrate on your scene, while Easy Playback lets you screen your images on a super-sized 3.0-inch LCD.

    I saw this camera during Boxing Week 2008 and actually took a picture of the camera store fooling around and shaking the camera – and it took a perfect picture despite that fact. I was impressed. The only thing I am not impressed with .. is the two “AA” batteries that is needed. Apparently they only last about 250 pictures or so (and during display of images) .. so I will have to watch out and conserve battery energy.

    In Canadian Dollars, it was $199.99 CDN plus taxes .. but, I had $150 in christmas gift cards to deduct from this figure.

    Specs

    SanDisk Extreme III SD Card – 2GB (times two)

    1112120m

    * Designed to meet the critical speed and performance needs of serious professional photographers-lets you quickly capture, view, upload and transfer large image files Ideal for demanding photo shoots under severe weather conditions-heat, cold, wind, rain, snow, etc.
    * Built to perform in the most extreme environments and temperatures-from -13º F to 185º F -25º C to 85º C
    * Min 20MB/second sequential read and write
    * Durable, reliable and thoroughly tested-temperature tested (heat and cold)
    * shock and vibration tested
    * Data recovery software-ensures your photos will always be there (even if you delete them accidentally)
    * Dedicated, priority technical support hotline for direct customers of SanDisk Extreme products
    * Included travel case keeps your memory cards organized

    I wanted to buy a memory card that holds 1000 images, and apparently (so the salesman says) a 4GB SD card will do that. I have never had cards, and my last camera I was limited to the 22 images I could hold in memory of the camera. I figured I would get two 2GB cards though, so one will always be in the camera and one available – in case full.

    In Canadian Dollars, these were $19.99 x 2 = $39.98 CDN plus taxes

    Specs

    ATP Pro Max USB 2.0 Card Reader

    af-crmwh-f2

    This NEW Multi-Card SDHC Reader offers the convenience of plug and play ability with all of today’s common flash card formats. It’s fast USB2.0 interface is complemented by it’s sleek, compact design.

    I hope to conserve battery power by using this, and one of the reasons I purchased two 2GIG SD cards instead of one 4GIG SD Card. I will keep one in my computer in this card reader and one in my camera at all times! I can’t remember how many times I attached my USB cable to my camera, plug it into the computer and forget about it .. and then drained the lithium battery. I was able to recharge the battery, but it was a nuisance. With this new camera, being it uses AA batteries – this could become costly! I might have to buy some rechargeable batteries and a charger in the future.

    In Canadian Dollars, this was $22.99 CDN plus taxes

    Specs

    Lowepro Recycled Camera Pouch – Terraclime 30

    lpterraclime30plum-e__1

    The Lowepro Terraclime 30, in Plum is a soft-sided, protective, multi-purpose shoulder bag. The Terraclime 30 was designed expressly for the eco-conscious, fashion-savvy consumer. The Terraclime 30 reduces environmental impact by virtue of its materials—over 95% recycled. All of the fabric is 100% post-consumer Cyclepet®: recycled 16 oz. PET bottles turned into sturdy, water-and-abrasion-resistant material (3.5 bottles in Terraclime 30). Multi-purpose styling makes it easy to carry compact point-and-shoot cameras as well as small personal electronics and gear.

    My last camera pouch was “just the right size” but, when I added the extra battery and the USB cable, it always seemed a little tight. This pouch is a little bigger, and should hold the card reader, the memory cards, extra batteries, the USB cables and more in there!

    Specs

    All together … with taxes … less gift cards … this upgrade cost me about $164 CDN and I am happy with that price in my budget. My old camera still works, so I will be donating it to a worthy cause ..

    Tags:
  • scissors
    February 22nd, 2009HARTQuickies

    UPDATE: Cell Phones .org has just lifted the U.S. (only) rules, and now all bloggers are eligible to enter this contest! In fact … I have entered myself in this contest too! Pass it on.

    Attention Bloggers In The U.S.A.

    Cell Phones .org is holding a 2009 Blogger Appreciation Contest for U.S. Residents and you could win to have your cell phone bill paid up for a full year (up to $1,000 USD). Although I live in Canada, and host my sites in the United States, I am not eligible. But, if you live in the United States you can host your blog anywhere in the world.

    According to their contest page..

    Contest Requirements

    You must be an active blogger, on any subject. Active means you’ve been blogging for at least the last two months. Your blog can be hosted anywhere. No Spam or Automated Blogs. You need to live in the United States of America. If you win, you need to let us post your name and a link to your blog.’

    How To Enter:

    You or someone you know needs to submit your blog via our submission form on the bottom of this page.

    Prizes

    1. 1st Prize: 1 year of your cell phone bill on us (Cell Phones . Org) – up to $1000
    2. 2nd Prize: Free cell phone of your choosing (does not include plan, just the phone).
    3. 3rd Prize: $100 off your your next purchase at Cell Phones .org – this is transferable and never expires.

    Dates

    * Submissions Accepted until February 28th 2009.
    * Voting until March 17 2009
    * Final Results March 19 2009

    You can enter this contest and ask your own readers to nominate or vote for you here:
    cellphones.org/free-cell-phone-contest.php

    Unfortunately, you can’t nominate me .. but feel free to nominate yourself and your friends! $1,000 towards your cell phone bill? That’s gotta help 🙂

    Tags:
  • scissors
    February 17th, 2009HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies

    There’s never enough time in the day, but there are a few things that I seem to do over and over again, that I think I can save a little time each day.

    Currently .. I have over 100 google alerts set up. Each is set as follows:

    * Type – “Comprehensive” (vs News, Blogs, Web, Video, Groups)
    * Deliver to – “Email” (vs Feed)
    * How Often – “As-It-Happens” (vs Once-A-Day, Once-A-Week)

    I find it necessary to have all of these google alerts. If people are talking about any of our domains, or writers, or on topics that are related to our blogs .. I want to know about it.

    But, I find that with all this information, I’m not really looking at these alerts that come into my email. I mean, I eventually look at them … and maybe browse through them a little – because I get a popup notice everytime I see a new email coming in on my Google Talk IM chat client. When I look inside my gmail, for terms that are curious to me, I also take a quick peak and see what the alert was all about.

    But – even if it is worth me looking into, and doing a follow up – (unless it’s something I really should take care of immediately, like mention of an author interview or something) – I tend to just mark it as “starred” and when I have time late at night, follow up on them anyway.

    Time Management Step: Reduce Time Reading These Emails Twice

    For the reasons .. I have decided to change all of my Google Alerts to “ONCE-A-DAY” delivery in my email.

    I’ll let you know how it goes for me .. Currently, I receive at least 70 email alerts a day.

    Tags: ,
  • scissors
    January 4th, 2009HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies, WooHoo

    WARNING: Unless you are blogging for money, have a multitude of sites, or basically bored out of your skull for the next 20 minutes .. I would probably read the NEXT post~! (boring alert)

    Net Income – 2008 – And Reflection

    Gross Earnings – $19,864.31
    Gross Expenses – $16,707.39
    Net Income – $3,156.92

    *ugh* .. where do I begin? Is this good? Or, is this not so good?

    Honestly .. I was hoping that I would break $25k revenues in 2008, and actually reach closer to $30k .. more than 4 times that of 2007. My traffic has doubled over the past year, and I was hoping it would be about 8 times more than in 2007.

    However, I still cannot quit my day job and still continue this HART-Empire Network as a part-time venture, despite the amount of time and involvement I have and spend online during the days, months and years. I think that if I had savings, or at least no debt obligations, and able to just spend 100% of my time on my online ventures .. I would be in a much better position that I am today. Basically I find myself putting out flames, and patching up holes and getting sidetracked on the little things … which take up time in my alotment of free time to be spending on the bigger things. In other words .. I’m not doing what I should be doing!

    Now, don’t get me wrong – you do see me out here – and I am having a ball doing this! Whenever I find myself in a situation that, well – I can’t really do anything productive or move forward with my network – I have been spending my time chatting, socializing, forum hopping and even tweeting! I surf, I help promote some of my sites, a lot of other people’s sites, and generally just “hang loose” while I try to imagine a better and wealthier life created because of all this.

    Yet – I think I am in a position that many have yet to achieve online with their blogging, and I also believe I *still* have great potential for greater success in 2009 and beyond with the HART-Empire Network. For these reasons, I have decided to share with you all of the juicy details of where my money came from, and where it went out to.

    Think of it as something my father would say to me growing up .. “Watch what I do .. and do the opposite!” Of course, I have great respect for my dad and actually worked with him in Public Practice between 1985 and 2003 and in a way, everything I learned has greatly been influenced by him, and my background.

    Meanwhile, I am very grateful for what I have and what I have built .. and I thank and appreciate all my online friends and supporters that have either helped me directly or inspired me indirectly to succeed and become better and I will never forget my friends and I mean that.

    So, besides just publishing what my 2008 earnings were this year, I have decided to expand into details to show where the money really has been coming from and where it has been going, and some of my insights that I have seen along the way. This post may soon become extremely long and boring .. so, in case you want to leave or get a fresh cup of coffee .. now is the time 🙂

    Reflection Of My Earnings 2008

    Except for the Halloween store of the HARTmarket series .. I really didn’t start to promote my other stores until Mid November. As such, the earnings are horribly embarrassing for the amount of time that I have spent against what I have earned. However, since about Christmas I have initiated random postings (1 per hour) from each of the stores to approximate (hopefully) one extra post per hour submitted to my Twitter account. Since Christmas, I have earned an extra $50 in commissions .. but, do not know how long that will transpire. I am very happy with Shareasale, and Pepperjam networks, and also use Commission Junction. I must say, though, that I hate CJ because I have to access the site from IE – it’s not too FF friendly.

    My Text-Link-Ads revenues made up 56% of my annual revenues in 2008. This scares me a little, because although for a few months I had broken the $1k mark, it is slowly declining each month. Not only that, there are some blogs that I really haven’t been blogging much on, that are earning the most revenue! I guess that’s good for me .. but, you think the advertisers would wise up more 😛 (jes keedeeng).

    I have pretty much -NIL- private sponsorship. Everything has been going through a 3rd party. It kind of bothers me that I have earned about $12,500 in 2008 – which represents about 50% because it is shared with the media company that finds, manages and maintains the advertising portion towards my blogs (TLA, LW, etc). I have started to place my own ads on my blogs that go through ‘Acrux Ads’. They do not take 1/2 and just charge me a handling fee. This enables me to charge less, yet earn more … but I have to handle all the promotion and bring the advertisers to me. (PS if interested, give me a shout!) I must say it is harder than it seems. I have yet to sell any ads, however I did mention once or twice that advertising options were available. I hate to beg or sound like I am needy. I have to change this attitude for 2009 and build on this part of my earnings.

    Revenue By Topics Series

    I consider the HART-Empire Network broken into four distinct “series” of blogs and sites, and then everything else. Here is how my revenue was broken down by series:

    @ HART Market Series – 1% of my revenue
    And You Will series – 10% of revenues
    Battling Series – 25% of revenues
    LVR series – 35% of revenues
    Everything else – 29% of revenues

    This was a shocker for me .. because in my mind “PetLvr” is the major part of my network and I consider it to be subsidizing everything else. But, in reality – although about 44% of my traffic (uniques) are from PetLvr blog itself ..there is a lot of traffic going to alot of other sites and the little earnings of the individual blog, do add up in the whole. I feel that if I spent time developing the “everything else” sites and the “Battling” and “And You Will” series .. there is much potential.

    I wish I could find CPM rates for all my blogs, but although 56% of my traffic that is not on CPM sounds good – when you spread it out to about 60 blogs it’s not that good. Advertisers are not jumping to get me on board, and quite frankly the lower traffic blogs make more money with google adsense actually.

    Reflection on My Expenses

    I’ve got three major expenses that are bringing down my profits dramatically. The first is my EVDO access fees. EVDO is my hi-speed wireless internet access for my laptop. Unfortunately (for my online business that is), we have a cottage on Lake Winnipeg and go every weekend between the May long-weekend and Canadian Thanksgiving. During the summer months, we take 3-4 weeks straight vacation out there continously. When I say “every weekend”, my wife begins to take Friday off and and we try to make it into a 3-day weekend. This has been hell for me – internet wise – because there is no internet out there. Already, I need about 5-6 days a week for my offline accounting and income tax business, and forced to fit this into a 4 day week – with the minor online activities and time spent. There isn’t any internet access at the cottage, unless we invest into a mega satellite dish .. which isn’t going to happen. So, I signed up for EVDO and every summer, go about 16 GIG transfer over my limit and bring about a huge bill. I recently renegotiated this back in November, so I’m hopeful to reduce this expense for 2009.

    Hosting costs. I have a super duper dedicated server and it is costing me. I wouldn’t need the super duper part, if I didn’t have the 60-70 blogs and sites on my server. I do not upgrade because of traffic growth, it’s for sheer CPU resource usage management. I really appreciate all the advice from many friends who think I should be paying half the fees with a magical system. I find it curious that, as an accountant and someone who has been online since March 1995 and blogging since 2005 and with all my sites and paying over $400 per month – every month – why they don’t think I have considered lowering my hosting costs? I have tried pretty much everything that has been suggested to me, and its unrealistic to think that I will move my accounts every 2 weeks to a different host provider to save $25-$50 per month without assurances. I believe my server is now able to handle most of the traffic now, although I am at a situation where I can upgrade this server two times more before I must look for more economical alternatives. I am using Singlehop and like their support and services.

    Writers Analysis for 2008

    I started the year with 2 writers providing me with content at the beginning of the year .. and ended up with 7 writers at the end of the year providing me with content. Altogether, I have gone through 22 writers this year in total. It is hard finding and keeping good writers and I felt that I have had great writers in the past, and all had better reasons to leave for their own benefit than to stick around for my benefit. I have been subsidizing writers for other blogs out of my own pocket and PetLvr blog earnings. Although, I didn’t start adding writers to the PetLvr blog until late June 2008, I earned about $4,300 more revenue for PetLvr blog that I paid out to writers, that went to support other writers.

    Not one other blog supported the cost of its writers – but, I honestly didn’t expect this to happen for at least 6 months. There are two blogs in the network that survived the 6 months and came close however, and feel each was just picking up steam before the sails were let out and time to look for a new writer.

    But – something strange happened in July 2008. On one blog, I decided to stop writing and just let traffic come to old posts that were doing well in the search engine. Surprising, this was on Battling Obesity blog and my traffic kept GROWING until about end of November 2008, and it was the highest grossing revenue in the Battling series. I will be resuming posting on this blog, and the other Battling series blogs without writers currently, and hope to focus 2009 into building up the “And You Will” series of blogs with content and writers.

    As for Domain renewals .. this includes a few domains that I have selected to renew for 3-5 year terms, plus obtain the .net .org domains as well. As for new registrations, I seem to have had a brain fart in the summer and registered a bunch of new domains for no reason … although, I did manage to turn one of them into a positive domain – x22c.com to shorten URLs for myself 🙂

    As for the advertising costs .. I would much rather put my money into content and writers’ fees than risk spending again with e.g. Yahoo Ads to promote my Halloween store or christmas stores. I hope the stores catch on over time in the HARTmarket – but, the whole idea for me to create them in the HART-Empire Network themed template and in the form of a blog is to avoid advertising.

    A Few Sitemeter Graphs from 2008

    Overall, traffic increases approximately 50% growth per month what it was at the beginning of the year … That’s good, right?

    sitemeter-2008-h-e-n-all

    PetLvr traffic blog traffic approximately doubled in 2008 per month, which a lot of hard effort and new writers were involved to help boost this growth

    sitemeter-2008-petlvrblog

    1-8-0-0-H-A-R-T traffic is very negligible, although about the same every year .. builds up a little during tax time, then settles off during the summer vacation and rest of the year, when I just post fluff Canada Revenue Agency news releases mostly

    sitemeter-2008-1800hartblog

    Raw Data – Summarized by ANAL-HART

    Here are the final gross revenues (by source) that my HART-Empire Network earned for 2008, 2007 and 2006 .. side by side for comparison

    SOURCE

    2008

    2007

    2006

    Google Adsense $4,181.58

    $1,541.42

    $800.00
    Linkworth $806.68

    $963.59

    $0.00
    Chitika $592.32

    $37.17

    $75.00
    Amazon $25.28

    $31.76

    $100.00
    Text-Link-Ads $11,150.71

    $4,807.90

    $1,050.00
    Adify $2,661.23

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Cafepress $0.00

    $19.00

    $55.00
    Affiliate/Commissions $245.27

    $158.07

    $85.00
    Kontera $21.24

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Private Ads $30.00

    $0.00

    $1,500.00
    Rebuild Your Vision $150.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    ————

    ————

    ————
    TOTAL $19,864.31

    $7,558.91

    $3,665.00
    ========

    ==========

    ========

    Here is the allocation of the 2008 Earnings – By Blog – which only includes blogs and sites that have earned revenues in 2008

    BLOG

    LVR Series

    AndYouWill Series

    Battling Series

    HARTmarket Series

    Everything Else

    BirdLvr.com $97.75

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    CatLvr.com $64.95

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    DogLvr.com $325.98

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    FishLvr.com $65.86

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    HorseLvr.com $27.68

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    PapillonLvr.com – Blog $10.51

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    PetLvr.com – [The Blog] $6,434.31

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will [Portal] 0.00

    $0.28

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Garden $0.00

    $107.72

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Have Kids $0.00

    $6.46

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Marry $0.00

    $70.41

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Play Poker $0.00

    $406.05

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Renovate $0.00

    $192.94

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Retire $0.00

    $1,028.02

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    And You Will Travel $0.00

    $152.33

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling For Health [Portal] 0.00

    $0.00

    $7.37

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Addiction $0.00

    $0.00

    $775.25

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Alzheimer $0.00

    $0.00

    $279.94

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Arthritis $0.00

    $0.00

    $296.58

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Cancer $0.00

    $0.00

    $880.68

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Depression $0.00

    $0.00

    $29.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Diabetes $0.00

    $0.00

    $400.90

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Healthcare $0.00

    $0.00

    $19.45

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Hearing $0.00

    $0.00

    $2.71

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Heart and Stroke $0.00

    $0.00

    $319.42

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Multiple Sclerosis $0.00

    $0.00

    $283.26

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Obesity $0.00

    $0.00

    $1,391.80

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Schizophrenia $0.00

    $0.00

    $64.64

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Stress $0.00

    $0.00

    $135.80

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Battling Vision $0.00

    $0.00

    $178.39

    $0.00

    $0.00
    HARTmarket [Portal] 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $24.90

    $0.00
    Classified market 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.51

    $0.00
    Shop @ Birthday 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $21.18

    $0.00
    Shop @ Christmas 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $52.22

    $0.00
    Shop @ Furniture 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $6.74

    $0.00
    Shop @ Halloween 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $15.07

    $0.00
    Shop @ Lingerie 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $44.81

    $0.00
    Shop @ Medieval 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $53.47

    $0.00
    Shop @ Pet Care 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $22.41

    $0.00
    Shop @ Software 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.14

    $0.00
    Shop @ Tools 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $1.55

    $0.00
    Shop @ Vision 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $3.22

    $0.00
    Shop @ Wedding 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $24.46

    $0.00
    1-8-0-0-H-A-R-T 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $573.23
    1800HART’s Picks 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $715.71
    62-151 Media Group 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $621.88
    call HART crazy 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $87.81
    Corydon Clock Repair 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $232.09
    Curling Blog 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $163.37
    Easy Spyware Tools 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $11.04
    HART-Empire 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $2,599.35
    HART-Networ 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.67
    HART-Empire-Network 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $12.79
    Planet Earth Peace Party 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $111.01
    Planet Earth Research Foundation 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.55
    The Singers 0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $0.00

    $407.69
    ————

    ————

    ————

    ————

    ————

    ————

    TOTAL $7,027.04

    $1,964.21

    $5,065.19

    $270.68

    $5,537.19

    $19,864.31

    ========

    ==========

    ========

    ==========

    ========

    ==========

    Here are my expenses for 2008 – paid on a cash basis (e.g. Jan/08 includes Dec/07 expenses and I have not included some Dec/08 items that I will not pay out until Jan/09 like writers etc)

    2008 EXPENDITURE

    AMOUNT

    Domain Renewals $684.80
    Domain Registrations $234.70
    Dedicated Server and Hosting $3,771.59
    EVDO Access $1,859.42
    Advertising – Links $60.00
    Advertising – Halloween $176.58
    Advertising – Writers $50.00
    Software / Plugins / Support $706.40
    Content and Sub-Contract $933.00
    Writers and Sub-Contract $8,099.39
    Commissions Paid $6.51
    Design and Sub-Contract $125.00
    ————
    TOTAL $16,707.39
    ========

    Here is the breakdown – by topical “series” of what I paid to writers for these blogs in 2008, in aggregate

    WRITERS AND SUB-CONTENT 2008

    AMOUNT

    LVR Series of Blogs $2,136.42
    Battling Series $5,592.01
    AndYouWill Series $370.96
    ————
    TOTAL $8,099.39
    ========
    Tags: , ,
  • scissors
    January 4th, 2009HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies

    Well .. I really liked the old template, because it had sentimental value for me. It was the first template that I replicated on multiple blogs of mine, since October 2005. I first installed it on this blog when wordpress was at version 1.5+ and haven’t done much with it since.

    But, today I noticed for the first time that the front page seemed to only display up to July 2008! Accessing a permalink and blog post was not an issue – as it showed up no problem – but, I often come to this blog and never noticed this template flow.

    So …

    I have now converted this blog to the HART-Empire Network template … and upgraded the blog from version 2.2.2 to the latest version 2.7 .. as well as upgrade the plugins needed.

    HART-Empire.com is my blog that I used to talk about my network, like earnings etc, and anything blogging related that I may feel like venting about. This is not to be confused with the main HART-Empire-Network.com site that introduces news about my network to the world. For this reason .. I have also modified my tagline to now read:

    Welcome to the Secret Life of the HART-Empire Network .. You Are Here … So Shine On!

    If you find any errors, or discrepancies .. feel free to bring it to my attention, using the HART-Empire.com/contact/ form.

    Thanks
    HART

    Tags:
  • scissors
    December 11th, 2008HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies, WooHoo

    * I’ve been keeping track of my HART-Empire Network 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 2007/2008

    * 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

    * January 2008 – $984.91
    * February 2008 – $1,076.34
    * March 2008 – $1,596.53
    * April 2008 – $1,872.75
    * May 2008 – $1,767.26
    * June 2008 – $1,857.37
    * July 2008 – $1,770.71
    * August 2008 – $1,736.46
    * September 2008 – $1,669.61
    * October 2008 – $1,914.26
    * November 2008 – $1,823.65

    ** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-Nov/2008) – $18,069.85
    * Average (YTD) $53.94 per day ($60.79 in Nov/2008) and Average (YTD) $1,642.71 per month in 2008

    Reflection

    As I mentioned last month, November was intended to be another “building stage” month … trying to get my templates under controll, upgrading plugins, wordpress versions .. and other administrative stuff. Revenues were down because of it, bur fortunately not by much.

    Unfortunately, I didn’t do too much “building” and converting templates at all in November, and still during this time in December I have not done much. Quite honestly, I have been swamped with my offline work and I have been neglecting my blogs this month.

    As for the revenues, just like Halloween – I think I have “blown” it for christmas season in the HART Market stores, but I don’t advertise so, I deserve that I suppose! I’m barely getting this under control and modifying the products each site has every week and hopefully it will click in during 2009. The time spent in November trying to promote the stores were a last ditch effort, in my opinion, that I probably should have spent the time just modifying the templates and doing the upgrades. Oh well!

    And, I probably should be upgrading this blog and template too 🙂

    In December 2008, I did manage to create 8 new sites .. 3 new “Lvr” blogs (for 2009) and 5 new HART Market stores (as soon as I get the templates in I will add them to the top menu). If I can manage to earn revenues of $1,930.16 .. then I will have broken the gross revenues of $20,000 for 2008. Although, looking at my earnings so far Dec 1-10, 2008 .. I suspect I probably be closer to $19,800 or less.

    It’s been a slow year, yet looking at other blog owners trying to monetize and make money online I should be a lot more grateful than I am. However, I still direct my success to any bottom line earnings which, for the next six months, I see myself continually breaking even as I bootstrap more of my business back into the business and hope to grow.

    SOURCE

    2008 (11/12)

    2007

    2006

    Google Adsense $3,863.79

    $1,541.42

    $800.00
    Linkworth $756.60

    $963.59

    $0.00
    Chitika $550.22

    $37.17

    $75.00
    Amazon $25.28

    $31.76

    $100.00
    Text-Link-Ads $10,201.74

    $4,807.90

    $1,050.00
    Adify $2,328.96

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Cafepress $0.00

    $19.00

    $55.00
    Affiliate/Commissions $156.67

    $158.07

    $85.00
    Kontera $6.59

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Private Ads $30.00

    $0.00

    $1,500.00
    Rebuild Your Vision $150.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    ————

    ————

    ————
    TOTAL $18,069.85

    $7,558.91

    $3,665.00
    ========

    ==========

    ========
    Tags:
  • scissors
    November 7th, 2008HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies, WooHoo

    * I’ve been keeping track of my HART-Empire Network 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 2007/2008

    * 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

    * January 2008 – $981.88
    * February 2008 – $1,076.12
    * March 2008 – $1,596.30
    * April 2008 – $1,872.57
    * May 2008 – $1,767.04
    * June 2008 – $1,857.06
    * July 2008 – $1,770.19
    * August 2008 – $1,725.38
    * September 2008 – $1,668.93
    * October 2008 – $1,913.86

    ** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-Oct/2008) – $16,242.75
    * Average (YTD) $61.74 per day ($52.26 in Oct/2008) and Average (YTD) $1,623.25 per month in 2008

    Reflection

    October 2008 showed a decent 14.68% increase over September 2008 revenues, which was showing a little decline .. and hit the HIGHEST GROSS EARNINGS IN A SINGLE MONTH that I have ever did! Unfortunately, none of the increase was due to any Halloween marketing and store revenues, but fortunately I am optimistic and I will take it! (yaaaaay)

    PLUS:
    * Year-to-date October 2008 (10 months) I have officially doubled my earnings during the same period of 2007 (more yaaaay). I must remember, unfortunately, that gross revenues are not “net profits” or enough for me to quit my dayjob just yet but it’s nice to know as I see the gross increase – there is hope to receive a “net”. This month of October showed a net profit almost equal to the google adsense revenue I received. This is very good because Google sends me the money directly into my bank account each month. Being able to pay all the expenses out of my paypal account without bringing back my adsense earnings is a relief – especially if I can build up my paypal account balance.

    For November 2008, I am back in the building stages, as rather than specifically try to grow my network and get these templates under control and installed .. I will be tweaking existing sites that might help me longer term grow traffic for my network as a whole – and upgrade plugins. I have also introduced a new advertising medium to the mix and hope to supplement earnings with a totally new add-on to my gross. Can I break $2,000 in November?? *fingers crossed*

    For 2009 .. the plan is to continue to increase my base levels in paypal and add several new writers in January … before the new tax season starts eating up my time once again. I will not forget this over November and December.

    SOURCE

    2008 (10/12)

    2007

    2006

    Google Adsense $3,460.05

    $1,541.42

    $800.00
    Linkworth $721.60

    $963.59

    $0.00
    Chitika $476.96

    $37.17

    $75.00
    Amazon $22.24

    $31.76

    $100.00
    Text-Link-Ads $9,218.07

    $4,807.90

    $1,050.00
    Adify $2,061.14

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Cafepress $0.00

    $19.00

    $55.00
    Other Affiliations $127.69

    $158.07

    $85.00
    Private Ads $30.00

    $0.00

    $1,500.00
    Rebuild Your Vision $125.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    ————

    ————

    ————
    TOTAL $16,242.75

    $7,558.91

    $3,665.00
    ========

    ==========

    ========
    Tags:
  • scissors
    October 12th, 2008HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies, WooHoo

    * I’ve been keeping track of my HART-Empire Network 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 2007/2008

    * 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

    * January 2008 – $981.88
    * February 2008 – $1,076.12
    * March 2008 – $1,596.30
    * April 2008 – $1,872.57
    * May 2008 – $1,767.04
    * June 2008 – $1,857.06
    * July 2008 – $1,770.19
    * August 2008 – $1,725.38
    * September 2008 – $1,668.93

    ** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-Sepl/2008) – $14,318.64
    * Average (YTD) $52.26 per day ($55.63 in Sepl/2008) and Average (YTD) $1,590.56 per month in 2008

    Reflection

    September 2008 showed a 3rd consecutive decline in revenues. I attribute the first two months to my Summer Vacation, but in the month of September I was re-building the “Shop @ HART Market” stores. I actually showed a NET LOSS of ($292) for the month, as I’m still paying off the excess EVDO fees used while away at the cottage in August, plus I thought I would spend $200.00 towards Halloween and Yahoo! Marketing sponsorship ads .. just to see if it will help anything for the Halloween @ HART Market store. There were also an excess of domain renewals in the Month of September. It’s been a year since I converted the health and DIY sites to the single domain/subdomain concept, but I am not yet complete in moving the MySQL databases from the old account … so I just renewed everything just in case. This is my December 2008 project. The positive thing that came out of September 2008 is that I had exceeded $400 from Google Adsense two consecutive months in a row. I find that thrilling somehow.

    For October 2008, I am optimistic on moving upwards in revenues but, you know how that goes – stuff happens. I’ll know when the month of October 2008 is over how I did!

    SOURCE

    2008 (9/12)

    2007

    2006

    Google Adsense $2,992.44

    $1,541.42

    $800.00
    Linkworth $666.35

    $963.59

    $0.00
    Chitika $403.40

    $37.17

    $75.00
    Amazon $17.48

    $31.76

    $100.00
    Text-Link-Ads $8,214.71

    $4,807.90

    $1,050.00
    Adify $1,776.53

    $0.00

    $0.00
    Cafepress $0.00

    $19.00

    $55.00
    Other Affiliations $117.73

    $158.07

    $85.00
    Private Ads $30.00

    $0.00

    $1,500.00
    Rebuild Your Vision $100.00

    $0.00

    $0.00
    ————

    ————

    ————
    TOTAL $14,318.64

    $7,558.91

    $3,665.00
    ========

    ==========

    ========
    Tags:
  • scissors
    October 12th, 2008HARTHmmmm Things, Quickies, WooHoo

    D’oh! // Unfortunately I prepared this during the conversion in September 2008 when I upgraded to a bigger and better server and when the DNS kicked in … the post was not included.

    However .. here is the summary of August 2008 Earnings.

    Text Link Ads – $959.98
    Linkworth – $52.25
    Adify – $225.57
    Adsense – $401.72
    Chitika – $52.98
    Amazon – $1.88
    Shareasale – $6.00
    Rebuild Your Vision – $25.00

    >> Total August 2008 – $1.725.38

    >> Year-to-date 2008 – $12,649.71

    See the September 2008 earnings for spreadsheet links.

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    Tags:
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