Well probably the most noticeable has been the drop in traffic. While dropping my 300 a day, I was getting between 100-200 unique visitors a day. Not bad considering my blog was and is still very new. Now I’m getting between 30-60 unique visits a day, I have no other form of advertising going on apart from a couple of link exchanges, so I’m very happy with my 30-60. The number of comments I receive has dropped slightly, but nothing to drastic. This proves the point that the majority of EC’ers are only on your blog to drop. Nothing else. It’s nice to know my traffic is here to read my blog, not drop their cards. A stat I rarely keep track of but noticed an increase in is my RSS subscription. I logged into my feedburner account on Saturday to find I have 31 subscribers. I can’t really put that down to pulling out of Entrecard dropping though. The two stats I’m most happy with though, are my ”Bounce Rate” and my ” Avg. Time on Site”. for the first time in months they seem to be heading in the rite direction.

What have I been doing then?
As Entrecard isn’t eating up all of the time I have to spend on the internet, I’ve actually had to time to concentrate on ”Make money online” and ”Make money blogging. I recently registered a whole lot of Domain Names. One domain name now has a fully developed site which more or less runs itself. And no, it isn’t a spam blog or a blog that uses other peoples posts. I’ve also set up a couple of Niche blogs, one focuses on iPod accessories and the other is an educational resource. I intend to use these two to make money using Google Adsense. People say Google Adsense is dead, I can assure you it isn’t.

With the domains I can’t find a use for just yet, I’ve discovered domain parking. You change the name servers of your domains to which ever parking service you use, then you receive a percentage of the revenue generated from the ads placed upon your domain names. So far in April, I’ve earned $25 from domain parking. I’m currently using Sedo to park my domains, as far as I’m aware we split the ad revenue 50/50, so really I’ve earned $50. I’ve heard there are better companies out there offering a better revenue split. I really need to start looking in to it.

I’ve also started working on referrals. If you don’t no what this is? Where have you been? Basically, I receive x-amount of $ if somebody signs up for a service or purchases something via a link I’ve placed on one of my blogs. The 125×125 orange FlashDen ad banner you see in my sidebar is starting to finally generate some revenue. By placing it on my CMSNerd site, I’ve improved my click through rate and people are starting to actually purchase credits to spend on FlashDen. This means I earn a commission fee. The obvious reason why the FlashDen referral scheme is working so well on CMSNerd is because it’s targeting the rite audience, CMSNerd is a site aimed at web designers. Flashden is a web designers paradise. Now I need to find some referral schemes that I think will work well with Funk13.

I’ve discovered there are endless ways to make money online, I love reading about them and trying them out. Now I’m actually starting to make money online myself, I can afford to try bigger and better schemes. I just have to try and stay within my limits, but still have the balls to experiment. As I’ve learned with most things I’ve tried, practice makes perfect. If something fails the first time, pick yourself and try again.

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As you probably know, if you’re serious about making money online, you need to be experimenting with lots of different things. Posting away on one blog everyday might bring in some pocket change, but it isn’t going to get you that big beach house in the Bahamas is it? Or is it? If you know the secret and have some evidence to back it up? I’ll happily take out a bank loan pay you a six figure sum of your choice.

Anyway, funk13 isn’t the only blog/project I’m working on. I have at least 5 projects on the go at the moment. The one I’m going to discuss here with you is the one that has failed.

The Master Plan
Not actually a master plan. More of a, lets try this and see how it works. I wanted to experiment with eBay and affiliates. I created a website intended to drive people to eBay and certain products/items. If someone purchased one of the products/items shown on my site, I would receive a commission fee. Sounds simple enough, but it isn’t. To make these types of websites work, you’ve really got to know your stuff. I thought reading a couple of eBooks on Google Adwords would make me a marketing mogul. How wrong was I? These so called eBooks that promise you endless riches are complete and utter crap. The techniques in these eBooks are old and overused. I wish I hadn’t been so naive.

Two more reasons why I failed are cost and knowledge. I was competing with guys who have been into marketing for many many years. They’ve made lots of money already. They have the funds and the the know how when it comes down to marketing an affiliate site. I think putting all my eggs in to one basket (Google) didn’t help either. I could have tried advertising on Yahoo as well.

What I’ve learned

• You must research the products you’re trying to sell. For a beginner, trying to sell something that’s hugely popular is very risky. It will probably end in failure.

• The affiliate site or product you’re working on really needs %100 of your attention. Trying to run a few blogs and an affiliate site wasn’t the best idea for a beginner.

• Never expect to succeed. Because if you fail, not only will you be a lot more disappointed, it might put you off trying again.

Final Thoughts
I will be most definitely be trying affiliate marketing again. Although I lost a few ££ promoting my products, I’ve gained a lot of valuable knowledge. I wont be writing my own eBook anytime soon, but on my next attempt, I might actually make a small amount of profit.

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