That is exciting news in and of itself, but what I find to be even more exciting is that I made $100 for the month as of today.  This is 3 days earlier than last month!  I set myself a goal a while back to move that $100 for the month up every day with methods that I learned at WordPress Goldmine and Keyword Academy on making money with adsense.   I figured that by the time I got to the 1st of the month I would have a $3000 a month income in adsense alone, and since I usually use multiple monetization methods on my sites, I knew I would (and do) have other income coming in as well.

So I am now 1 step closer to my goal, which is VERY, VERY exciting… I must say.   To me that is one of the biggest benefits of setting achievable goals when it comes to internet marketing, especially if they are monetary.    If you are just starting out, or have been at this for a while and are not seeing much progress than a goal of making a certain dollar amount one day earlier every month may help you to know that you are making progress.  I have only missed one month since starting this process, and things have moved forward MUCH faster than I had anticipated – which is great.

So the question that people ask is “Heather, How are you doing it?”

The first thing I have to tell you is that if I in all my ADD glory can make this work than you can too.  The one big thing I have going in my benefit is that I have made some money for the past two years every single month, all I had to do was figure out how to scale it up, and since I am so darn stubborn (but not particularly brilliant) I just pushed through until I started to get it.  So the number one trait I think that is important in figuring out how to make money with adsense is the ability to push through until you get it.  I have seen many, many people quit before they make it and this is a big mistake.

The second thing is to learn from the good guys.  I am no expert, but what I am really good at is copying systems that work.  In my previous life I won more top sales and top production awards than I can remember because of this principle.  If you want to learn solid skills for Search Engine Optimization than you need to learn from the experts.  For small niche blogs, including how to set up a wordpress blog that converts well and gets ranked I recommend WordPress Goldmine.  If you want to create a long term sustainable adsense income and learn some advanced techniques for traffic generation than I recommend The Keyword Academy.  Right now both have dollar trials, so they are certainly worth checking out.   I would recommend joining one or the other and mastering one set of techniques first.  Otherwise you will just confuse yourself.

I personally use techniques I have learned from both places and have gotten results – I am happy to say.

Making money with adsense recap…

1.  Learn from people who know what they are doing.

2. Stick with it till you get it.

3. Set obtainable goals.

That is my whole plan in a nutshell!

Happy Money Making!

Heather

On Friday morning I woke up and checked my commission numbers from Thursday 2-18-2010 (and actually I just had to check the date because I couldn’t remember), and realized I had just made over a hundred dollars net commissions on Thursday.  This was super duper exciting to me, even though it is not a normal occurrence yet.  Here is how it broke down.

$80 in Commission Junction
$22 at Amazon
$10.47 in adsense.

I happened to get pretty darn lucky with that commission junction order, and by luck I mean that the site it came from I have had up for a while and have promoted a lot and produces regularly for me, just not usually $80 in one day.

So after Thursday it looks like I may have my best month online ever this month.   I will let you know if that happens.

One of the things that constantly amazes me about internet marketing with SEO (search engine optimization) and article marketing is how much things build.  I have sites that I started a year ago (like the $80 commission site) that after some effort and some time seem to take on a life of there own, and just chug away making sales.  I find that this often happens between 4 and 5 months of age on many sites, and sometimes it takes a year.  That is not to say that you can’t make money right away, because you can, but it sure is nice when all the work you put into a site pays off and it starts making money with little to no babysitting simply from traffic from the search engines and from the articles you have written.

So I guess what I’m saying is this…. A little bit of effort every day over a long period of time goes a long way to creating a sustainable income.  I used to think I had to write 20 articles a day (and was never, ever able to do that), because that was what other people say they did.  Now I know that if I start 1 new site a week with outsourced content and do some initial promotion and then focus on  building and promoting my older sites my income will grow steadily and surely.  I no longer stress about an individual site.  I just get up every day and get my five things done to move my business forward.    Then I get to spend time with my kids and my husband.  Life is GOOD!

Is that a loaded question or what?  I mean seriously…  Well it is one I asked myself two days ago, because I figured if I could focus on the things that made me happy then I would enjoy running my business more.  I had a very eye opening experience as I wrote down my lists.  Here is what I came up with.

Stuff that makes me happy (in regards to my internet marketing business)

Having a plan
Working my plan
Staying focused
Taking breaks when I need them
Getting enough sleep
Drinking water
Eating well
Work during work time and not during family time
Writing my blog (this one right here)
Organization

Things that make me miserable

Checking adsense obsessively
Checking facebook obsessively

I know that doesn’t sound earth shattering, but the things that make me miserable I did all the time.  In order to combat this tendency.  I have written on my magic white board these two lists and look at them when I need inspiration to write a boring article or get through my 5 things for the day.

The question then becomes – Are you making yourself miserable?  If so why?  For me it was just habit and nothing else…. but now that I know I can change that habit.

Onwards and Upwards!

Heather