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

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

June 2007 was a transitional month for me, and the HART-Empire Network. I basically shut down my blogs for half a month while moving to a new server. And, it was quite a challenge. I wasn’t moving one or a handful of blogs .. I was moving over 45 blogs in total. SIX of those blogs shared the same MySQL database and the actual database .sql file was over 400 MB in size! It was quite hard to backup, and even during restoration .. there were issues because of its size. I managed to segregate all the six blogs into a unique MySQL database for each blog .. and get that working.

As for the June 2007 earnings … 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. At the moment, I am at the cottage and there are a few small accounts not verified. I will update during the week.

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

** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-Jun/2007) – $2,954.70
* Average (YTD) $16.32 per day or, $492.45 per month

Reflection

Costs were high in June 2007, and exceeded my cash inflows. First, I got hit with an $180 charge by my old ISP#1 for the overage of the bandwidth levels in May 2007 .. which, equates to $10 per 1GB Bandwidth overrun. My bandwidth on just 6 sites – including PetLvr and 1800HART was 33GB in May 2007. I’m also paid up for the first three months (jun-jul-aug) with the new ISP#3 quarterly VPS plan. A whole bunch of domain renewals came due and I renewed them all. The next batch is in September, and I’ll probably renew them later this month before I forget.

The big news (and new monthly expense) is that I started an EVDO account June 30th, which gives my laptop hi-speed internet access where ever there is cell phone connectivity .. and besides signing up for a 3-year contract, I had to “buy” the PC EVDO Card for about $100 plus taxes (CDN). For the first three months, my cost is $60 CDN per month based on 500MB transfer per month. I have no idea what that translates to until my first bill – as, I will be using this all July! After that, I get one free downgrade to the minimum $45/month fee it will cost me in the off season .. and then I have to pay $25 each time to max out the plan to next summer’s monthly fee of $90 .. and then to downgrade again in September to $45 per month. It’s a vicious cycle, but as you can see with my online earnings – I think it is a valid expense at this time. Last year, my blogging empire began to dwindle while I was out at the beach enjoying the summer. Now, I can still do that – but, at night check in with the virtual world and keep my blogs posted.

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

I posted my 2007 earnings for the period January 1, 2007 to April 30, 2007 last month .. OVER HERE ..and it is my intention to update it every month – and “keep score”. It’s also my hope to show all the “newbies” and even the “not-so-newbies-but-been-around-the-block-too” people .. that it really does take time to get things built up and to a level where you can earn revenues from online activities.

I have now been officially blogging for MORE than two complete years as my PetLvr site reached it’s 2nd anniversary on May 31, 2007. Personally, I think whoever says that they are making money within their first six months are either “the exception”, lying, or will eventually burn out and never make it long-term. I don’t think I could ever have made money within the first six months .. however, I chose not to invest money or advertise during my time blogging .. and recognize that 2 years before one starts making money might be a little longer than the average person. If I didn’t have my online career and the slowdown every Jan-June from lack of involvement and time reasons .. well, I believe I would be way ahead than where I am today.

I’ve learned to be patient with the earnings part (and hopefully not annoying of my readers) but anything goes with the monetization aspect .. in the hopes not to be reliant on one sole source of revenue. Definitely, Text Link sponsorship has helped me get a boost in my earnings and as for Google Adsense .. it’s hard not to take advantage somehow and use them on the sites.

Here is what my earnings looked like since DAY ONE for both adsense and text link sponsorship .. so .. be patient! As you can see, I’ve only been using TLA for 1-year and I’ve earned more than double what adsense was for 2-years. I see real estate space for future TLA earnings, but limited to my sites and their potential. For adsense, there are other variables that I keep in mind (mostly traffic) but I think might have the greater exponential growth possibility. I could be wrong though! 😀

I might add, that in case you were interested in sponsoring a text link on any of my blogs .. please check out: HART-Network.com/advertise/ …

*Gratuitious Link*

It’s Also A Good Idea To Start Keeping Track

I’m using the Google Spreadsheet Document and constantly update it as I go along, and free to look at my figures, or even my formulas or the way I set this up .. for your own use!

* Here is the link: HART-Empire Network Earnings Spreadsheet Document (I hope you can’t change anything and it really is in VIEW mode – it’s hard to tell because I’m always signed in with my Google Talk! If not, please do not save any changes :D)

Obviously, 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 (previously reported as $476.08)
* May 2007 – $620.99

** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-May/2007) – $2,322.23

* Average (YTD) $15.38 per day or, $464.45 per month

Reflection

I’ve added more information related to my costs and net earnings. In May, I received a cheque from Hear and Play Music for $15 and somehow, my account at AuctionAds earned $0.77 and I’ve adjusted April figures.

The big news is that I am moving servers this month to my new ISP#3 .. MIDPHASE, and have already begun the process with my backups and well, payments. I’m expecting a surcharge for the additional Bandwidth that I used up in May at my ISP#1 .. and an extra sub-contract support to help me segregate MySQL database at ISP#1 but, so far – Year To Date (Jan-May/2007) my cumulative net earnings were $1,046.67. And, when you subtract my June payments already made .. $346.76 .. I don’t know where the difference went to – because, I’ve only got less than $10 in my Paypal account at this moment.

*some day* Hopefully some of my paypal earnings can get transfered back to my credit card, or my savings!

I can only hope it’s before Xmas 2007 – when I wish I have saved enough for a mini-vacation getaway with my wife.

* HART-Empire Earnings for 2007 (January-April) Released .. sounds like a press release, eh?

According to THIS POST back in 2006, I estimated that my 2006 earnings would be about $3,665 USD .. which turned out to be pretty close to actual. Actually, it was closer to about $2,200 USD plus private deals of $1,800 USD (that expired March 2007) for a total around $4,000 USD earnings.

Don’t ask me where the money went! It just went! But keep in mind, this is EARNINGS .. not cash.

Now .. I’ve deducted the $1,800 private deals from the lot to better represent the online earning potential and growth that I have accomplished from earning revenues online, and actually included (or ‘accrued’) revenue from sources that I have yet to receive payment from. You see, as an accountant – I’m anal like that! Not only can I tell you what I’ve earned, I can cross reference it by blog, by type of ad, and one other criteria .. but I won’t. What I do want to reflect is that without the private ads .. the $2,200 USD relates to:

* $183.33 per month average
* $6.03 per day average

So .. although I have all the details for 2007 recapped and itemized in excel spreadsheets on my computer, I have created a Google Document Spreadsheet and (hope this works) set it to SHARING in case anybody is curious to see a rough summary of how I keep track of my own personal earnings, from blogging – excluding private deals.

* HART-Empire Network Draft Earnings 2007

Summary of Gross Earnings 2007

* January 2007 – $344.61
* February 2007 – $372.37
* March 2007 – $492.41
* April 2007 – $476.08

** Year-To-Date Gross Earnings (Jan-Apr/2007) – $1,685.47

* Average (so far) $14.05 per day or, $421.37 per month

Reflection

I don’t know .. what do YOU think? Is that good? On one hand – I’ve struggled making my first $10 per month for many months .. and anything is good, right? But I’ve been blogging since May 2005 and now have over 40 blogs on 32 different domains. Also, I know of a lot of other bloggers that make about the same, or more, or less, but certainly spend a HECK OF A LOT LESS time blogging than I have been spending. But, I think the social aspect and ‘stress-release’ factor of reading, participating, commenting and just following the links is all part of the blogging process. It helps me get perspective, and lets me see what the world is doing out there online. It’s also fun too 🙂

It was only this recent March 2007 that I finally exceeded $100 per month level on Google Adsense earnings. I personally feel that if I were to SPEND more money on advertising, I would do more – but, I wanted to avoid that at all costs. As it turns out, I’ve actually started to purchase Text-Link-Ads to advertise the PetLvr site on a few sites .. just to test the waters .. but it hasn’t been much, as I am a cheap bastard 😀

* Advertising SPENT in 2007 – January $0, February $20, March $20, April $45 (I have also prepaid May/2007 for the same amount $45 at this point)

I have no savings, as I have actually been “bootstrapping” my business by reinvesting these gross proceeds towards certain other online aspects of my business that, I’d rather not go into at this point in time.

* February 2007 is the first time I have broken $100.00 Google Adsense Earnings in one month

Last month, January 2007 .. I came close – and received $99.50 earnings.

So is this a good thing? // I think so! Because if I can maintain that level of earnings, at least there will be some payment coming in from Google (direct deposit) into my bank account around the 24th of each month. Most of my automatic debit payments occur in the last week and 1st of the month .. so, that helps a little.

BUT – keep in mind the following:

1) I’ve been blogging since May 31, 2005 with adsense on my blogs
2) I currently have over 30 domains with blogs mostly all having adsense on my blogs

You see, it’s not really a BIG success based on the above knowledge .. but I always keep in mind: I remember back in 2005 in the first 6 months – you know, when everybody who WAS making money would saying .. “Don’t worry .. It takes at least 6 months to make money” – and when I would be earning something like $10.00 per month OR LESS and was still as WooHoo! happy as I am today.

* I received a commission cheque from Linkshare today – for the Canadian Accounts

* But – it was all on one sale at Dell Canada – 0.93% commission (less than 1%!)

* After I saw that crappy payout last spring – I started to concentrate on my Amazon products, to reach that $100 minimum threshold (which I also recieved earlier this month). I did want to do more with the musical instruments .. Woodwind and Brasswind .. but they had financial problems and went into receivership or something like that .. I think they mentioned in an email that they were not going to pay any balances, then again mention that they would .. it was too much Drama for a non-earning thing for me to continue.

After tax season when I am less busy, I think I will go back to promoting product like this over at 1800HART.com/picks/ The-Furniture-Site.com The-Lingerie-Site.com Medieval-Site.com and the Item-Site.com .. but I want to take time to represent companies that offer a much higher commission payout than Dell! Now that I know LINKSHARE (LinkSynergy.com) actually pays .. well, as I said .. it’s just good to know!

* It’s about friggin’ time .. since 2004

* Of course, $79.96 of that cheque was one sale (believe it or not!)

So, needless to say .. it is SAFE TO SAY .. that I suck at this Amazon commission earnings thingie. I’ve installed the new WP-AMAZON plugin that has been upgraded for wordpress version 2.1, but it only works if you use Firefox and only if you use visual editor as well. Otherwise, it doesn’t work – but, it is still in beta testing.

Now that I’ve got the balance of my Amazon Account … I don’t really see a need to further promote anything. However, I do have some links around my blogs – I will leave them online until the end of March 2007 Q1 to see if any earnings is generated. Most of the remaining earnings seems to be made from my PapillonLvr.com/blog/ selling Papillon Books!