Blog Monetization Report for November 2011

December 8, 2011 By Jamie Filed Under: Blog Monetization Report 20 Comments

Welcome to my blog Monetization Report. This is my fourth full month blogging!

I set a goal for myself to make at least $1,300 for the month of November and reach 10,000 Facebook fans.

Here is what I made for the month of November:

Facebook Fans: 13,625 from 6,874!

Escalate: $671.28

Panthera: $519.40

My Savings: $135.61

Kontera: $91.67

Amazon: $368.20

1SaleADay: $67.68 (new)

Logical Media: $22.00 (new)

Revenue Curve: $22.00

Paid Posts: $85.00

For a Total of: $1,982.84!

Other Money and Gift Cards I have earned:

Super Points: $85.00

Jingit: $40.00

Giving it Away: $50 Amazon Gift Card

Stumble Upon: $70 in Amazon Gift Cards

Shop it to Me: 2 $10 Sephora Gift Cards

For a Total of: $265!

Total Revenue of $2,247,84!

I would say I totally hit my goal! Hopefully I can continue to grow and keep up the motivation to keep making money! My goal for December: $1,300! I don’t anticipate doing as well in December because of the Holiday, but I can hope!

Do you Monetize? Or do you want to learn how to? Shoot me an email at AlwaysSearching4Savings@gmail.com with any questions you may have. I am happy to help!

Blog Monetization Report for October 2011

November 3, 2011 By Jamie Filed Under: Blog Monetization Report 5 Comments

Welcome to my blog Monetization Report. This is my third full month blogging and feel like I have grown and gained tons of awesome followers!

I set a goal for myself to make at least $800 for the month of October and reach 7,000 Facebook fans.

Here is what I made for the month of October:

Facebook Fans: 6,874

Escalate: $358.59

Panthera: $648.60

My Savings: $95.76

Super Points: $75 Cashed out in October

Kontera: $34.32

Amazon: $38.36

For a Total of: $1,250.63!

I would say I totally hit my goal! And it is a HUGE improvement to the $293.58 that I made in September! Now hopefully I can continue to grow and keep up the motivation to keep making money! My goal for November: $1,300! Do you think I can do it?

Do you Monetize? Or do you want to learn how to? Shoot me an email at AlwaysSearching4Savings@gmail.com with any questions you may have. I am happy to help!

Self Employed? Then you NEED to Know… Bloggers must read!

September 14, 2011 By Jamie Filed Under: Blogging 101 7 Comments

I just read a VERY interesting article on Taxes. It is a MUST read, especially if you are a fellow blogger! In a nutshell it states that if you review a product or are sponsored in any way and the value is over $25, you must report it on your taxes, even if you did not receive a 1099! Read the whole article Here.

I was a Real Estate Broker for over 3 years, in that time I learned a lot about taxes. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t learn them fast enough and ended up paying OVER $8,000 in taxes my first year! I was shell shocked! So I did my research and reached out to my fellow associates for information on what I could and couldn’t write off to help lower my tax bill for the following year.

Keep ALL receipts, you can write off the following items:

Gifts

(up to $25 per gift)

A portion of your rent and mortgage.

When your home is also your business you get to consider a percentage of the costs of that home to be business expenses. Figure out how much of the home you actually use to conduct your business (if your house it 1000 SQ feet and your office is 10 SQ feet you can write off 10% of your rent or mortgage) and use that percentage of your annual rent or mortgage for your tax write-off. NOTE: It has to be designated for ONLY business use, you cannot write off your living room because that is where you work from.

Supplies

There are certain items that were probably bought just for your business – your computer or the new printer that you use for example. Postage is another big one if you have giveaways where you mail your own prizes. And DON’T forget, if you pay for site hosting or a blog designer those are write off too!

Utilities

The utilities, the phone bill and the cable Internet may all be deductible from your taxes, at least in part (same rule applies as the rent and mortgage), if you are using them at your home for the purpose of your work at home.

Charity Donations

I coupon and tend to get things super cheap or free, I donate them to local churches and charities.

The laws are constantly changing on this one, so do your homework before you write it off.

Want to get started in your Blogging Adventure? Check out Blogging 101 Here!

* Please note, I am not a tax consultant, this is just information that I have learned on my many quests of being Self Employed *

Blogging 101

September 5, 2011 By Jamie Filed Under: Blogging 101 11 Comments

When my friends and family found out that I started Blogging, they all asked me why. My response was easy, I love sharing my knowledge. Looking through out school projects and homework (my mom kept EVERYTHING), I noticed that every time I did a project that involved what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was always the same: Teacher. Well, needless to say, I never fulfilled that dream. I opted to follow in my older brothers footsteps and joined the Army when I was 17. Nearly 11 years later (stop doing the math), here I am blogging. I have learned a lot in the past few months and have been lucky enough to meet a lot of great girls that have taught me a thing or five. So now, I want to share my knowledge, because well, it’s what I do.

When to Blog

1. Before you start blogging, decide on what you are passionate about, may it be kids, pets, music, whatever. If you don’t love what you blog about, you will lose interest fast.

2. Be sure you have time! Blogging can be very time consuming. If you don’t have the time or patients, I would recommend not doing it.

How to Blog

1. There are tons of sites to set up your blog on. If you are looking to do it for a hobby and don’t have a lot of money to invest I would recommend Blogger. It is free, and very easy to set up.

2. If you want to go hard core and monitize your blog I would recommend WordPress. There is a free version of WordPress, but if you are looking for free, I would go with Blogger. WordPress is self hosted, so you will have to find a hosting site like Host Monster, or Go Daddy. There is a monthly fee for these sites.

3. Customize your Blog, there are tons of great how to sites for customizing your banners & backgrounds. Or if you want there are also great sites that will customize it for you, but again, there is a fee for it.

How to Monitize

1. Adsense is a great way to monitize, and is very easy to set up in Blogger.

2. Affiliate programs are another route to take. With Affiliates, you have to apply and they will review your site and stats to determine if your site fits their needs. Do your research, and don’t go affiliate happy and sign up for every single one you come across, you will get overwhelmed, and a lot of sites require you to hit a minimum amount before you can get paid. Concentrate on 1 or 2 that way you can reach the minimum amount required faster. Here are some great Affiliates:

3. Be patient! Don’t expect to jump in to blogging and make thousands of dollars in your first month. It takes time.

Build Your Following

1. The best way to succeed is to build a good following, join blogging groups, network, and BEG your friends and family to get the word out. I am lucky enough to have grown to 4,000 + followers in the matter of just over a month, but it wasn’t easy.

2. Once you have you blog up and running, the worst thing you can do is start spamming other sites trying to promote your page. If you find a blog you love and have followed for a while, contact that blogger directly to see if they can help promote your page. A lot of times they will, but don’t get discouraged if they say no.

3. Join group giveaways or sponsor a prize for a larger blog. There may be cost involved, but it is a great way to build up your following fast.

So, a quick recap. Figure out what you are passionate about, do your homework and be patient and you will succeed in your blogging adventure!