As I have mentioned previously I didn’t get into blogging for the money. Even now that I’ve collected some coin, I’m still not focusing too much on income which is most likely why I’m still having a blast.
Ho, Ho, Holy Crap!
Santa was quite generous this month. You may remember I received such goodies as a Kindle Fire, and loaded up on slim-fitting suits for my wardrobe. Santa was not only good to me, but was good to Funancials as well. I locked up quite a few deals this month with some credible sponsors. A few of them were multi-month deals but I always include the earnings in the month I receive payment. It would be too much for me to remember to include deals (divided by 12) in every 2012 monthly breakdown.
Earnings
- December Blog Earnings: $1550
- November Blog Earnings: $355
You may look at my site and think, “how on Earth does someone make money when they don’t flood you with ads?” I try to keep most of my advertising to In-Body Text-Links. If you’re reading one of my articles about Lesser Known Credit Card Perks, you’ll notice that the term Credit Cards is a hyperlink. If you follow this, it will lead you to a highly relevant website educating you on the Top 0% Credit Cards. Pretty crafty, huh?
I much prefer the In-Body Text-Links vs. Google Adsense Text-Ads or busy Banner ads. The former (to my eyes) are less noticeable, less intrusive, and don’t affect the readability of any articles.
The 400% month over month earnings increase has given me the confidence to take the 30k Challenge; which is where I’m going to be highlighting my action plan to make $30,000 in online income in 2012.
Alexa
Once I completed the Yakezie Challenge and dropped below 200k, it hasn’t been an extremely important metric to me. This lack of focus shows.
- Alexa as of January 1: 129,696
- Alexa as of December 1: 127,321
For those of you celebrating my increase, stop! Alexa’s ranking is much like keeping score in golf: the lower, the better.
If you want to see this figure move in the right direction, remember to download the Alexa toolbar for free. It’s not one of those crazy Yahoo Search toolbars that bogs down your browser. There’s simply a Tiny A that will appear in the top right corner that will show you the Alexa Ranking of what site you’re visiting.
Visitors
I didn’t write any guest posts in December, which are always a good way to drive new visitors to your site. But what I did do was continue to focus on content. I am really trying to write articles you won’t be able to find elsewhere, and I believe that’s driving more people my way.
Month over month, there was a 12% increase in visitors to Funancials.
- 29.06% Search Traffic
- 40.55% Referral Traffic
- 23.10% Direct Traffic
- 7.29% Campaigns
I would really like to increase the Campaign figure, so in the first quarter of 2012, I’m going to focus on this. I will most likely offer up Gift Cards in exchange for people signing themselves up for email updates. I like the idea of me coming directly to you, in case you forget to come directly to me.
Summary
A lot of exciting things have happened this past year, now I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings.
Always evolve. Always improve.
