$500+ August 2018 Results

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2.3K followers
Updated

Hey there!

I can't believe its September already! August seemed like it flew by but maybe because so much has happened this month I have been struggling to keep up.

First I was sick with the worst headaches. I reluctantly drug myself to the Dr. and found out I had a sinus infection.

The meds they gave me were pretty strong too so I was out for nearly two weeks in August. Of course my site production suffered.

I also made some changes that negatively impacted my site traffic.

My earnings aren't nearly what my goal was but I'm trying to accept that if it increases I'll be grateful for it. And it has increased over last month.

But even more than financial gains I've made a lot of personal gains and learned many lessons this month. I've also overcome some of my fears with disclosing that I make money online.

So in all I'm happy with my August results because I've made a lot of mental gains.

Site Earnings for August 2018

I've decided to hold off on self-publishing although I really want to. Its not the right time now so I won't include the results for now since I won't really be working on it.

But interestingly enough, my earnings from last montha nd this month were pretty much the same. But notice that my Amazon earings for this month pretty much total what I made with KDP (self-publishing) AND Amazon last month.

So you can see that there was some growth there. The same thing happened with my May and June results, they were pretty much the same as well.

The other interesting thing about my earnings this month is that my site traffic is 300+ views shorter than last month. I also got a lot of spam this month so it might even be closer to being down 500+ views for the month. (So that would be about 1,500 views for August)

So I guess even with all the set backs and stuff this month, coming out with more is still a pretty decent accomplishment even without considering my self-publishing results.

Mental Setbacks And Breakthroughs

If you ask almost anyone who knows me in reality they'll likely mention a synonym to 'hard core' or 'strong'. Truthfully speaking, I'm not at all 'hard core'.

I feel the same things anyone else does that can be big road blocks:

  • fear
  • fear of judgement
  • not feeling like doing it
  • feeling like giving up
  • feeling like certain tasks are pointless
  • in love with my pillow and blanket
  • etc...

The only difference is that I refuse to let them STAY roadblocks for me. It may take years and a lot of people don't see the years things take to accomplish sometimes but all I can say is just keep putting one foot in front of the other because its not easy but you CAN do it.

You don't have to feel strong or confident or create some big grand scene to get everyone's attention. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other even if you feel weak, frail or unaccomplished.

Overcoming the Fear of Judgement About Working Online

When I first started to entertain the idea of working online I got a lot of negative feedback from my family and people close to me. As a result, I retreated from the idea but still never lost the spark.

Of course I continued to search and work in private. Even after finding WA, I kept everything secret.

I'd be so conflicted between what I wanted and what everyone else was saying that it really hindered my progress.

Its not really easy for me to share, I've scrolled up and down my screen a hundred times already trying to think if I should press the 'Publish' button or just delete everything....but I know that I'm not the only one that faces this sort of thing. So I want to share with you especially and let you know to keep listening to YOUR voice.

No one cares until you start making results but YOU have to care before then. And that's what I realized too as I vowed this year that I'm going to take this online business thing seriously.

I've always been a go with whatever everyone tells me sort of person, especially my parents. When we talked I'd just hide what I was doing and not say anything but that never felt good.

It just looked like I was using my daughter to 'not get a job'.

I finally told them what I was doing and how much I made from it. Of course they were still on the fence but it made me feel a whole lot better.

I've also done the same for other people who are close to me. One of the biggest reasons why is because I want to show my daughter how to stand for what she wants and not cave in to the many pressures people can put on you.

Over Researching

Another thing that I found myself doing this month was over researching. This really impacted me negatively because I started to doubt if what I was doing was working or if I should change to what all the guides were suggesting.

While guides are great, its important that we also take into consideration what is working in our business for our audiences. So I started to change things around.

This led to two more lessons.

If Its Not Broke, Don't Fix It

There's nothing wrong with experimenting but if something is working, its working for good reason.

I made changes to one of my best performing articles and it literally cut its views in half.

One of the reasons that I tried to adjust thing was because I wanted to try and rank for keywords it was ranking for but not necessarily relevant to. I've not been successful at this for this site so I'm thinking that Google has some sort of rule about ranking the same site for the same keyword more than once.

On the other hand, one that I left alone since I wrote it picked up this month.

The good thing about WordPress is that you can go back and revert the post to an older version so that's what I'm gonna do with that post.

Track Your Changes

One of the guides had a menu setup that I found interesting. I didn't necessarily like it but I wanted to try and see if it would work on my site.

Well...genius me changes the menu. It didn't work.

Now I don't remember how in the world I had the old menu setup which was successful btw. I had many multiple page views from my old menu.

Why did I decide to change it? To try something new I guess.

Again, if its not broke, don't fix it!

Don't Over Stress

The last point I want to make here is over stress. My health has not been good for the passed 3 months.

I'm usually a pretty healthy person and I know that stress and poor eating is the reason my immune system is so low. It wasn't even this bad when I was nursing my daughter so that's even more confirmation to stress being the culprit.

While I won't go into details about the stressors I will say that after this last bought of headaches, I've let everything go. I'm not going to let anything or anyone get in the way of my well being.

I hate pain, I hate being on medications and I hated watching my site stats plummet this month although I guess things didn't turn out too bad? Ugh...

My Goals For Next Month

Over the last week in August, I decided that I'm going to get serious about building my 'make money online' site. I'd been procrastinating and avoiding writing guides and a couple other necessities for it.

As a result of my new determination after recovering from my headache led me to sit down and knock them out over a couple of days. I wrote a couple of reviews and even though I didn't get them ranked, I was so excited to get a WA and Jaaxy referral today!!

So something is working somewhere for me, lol! :)

Also, I'll likely continue building my Amazon site. I feel recharged from all the upsets of August but I might hire writers to write for it though I still get better results when I write for myself...

I actually don't have a money goal this month. I feel like I've been too focused on money lately and need to get back to producing excellent content.

Being confident in my work, getting my traffic up and more WA referrals would be nice.

Things I've Accomplished With Site Earnings

If you don't know, before I started my journey to make money online I was a stay at home mom. I think in general people get the wrong idea about being a stay at home parents.

Just because you don't make an 'income' you still contribute a lot to your family so if you are a stay at home parent (mom or dad) I want you to know that you are doing a good job. Also even though you might not be 'earning' money, you're saving your family a butt load in daycare.

I was reading somewhere people pay over a thousand dollars a month on day care and that was here in NC let alone more expensive places. Most day cares cost as much as rent and other bills.

So know that you ARE contributing even to your family's finances.

That being said, with the earnings I'm making from this site I have also been able to contribute money towards my family's bills.

I was also able to pay for an emergency medical situation for my hubby when one of his teeth broke off.

And even though I wanted to use the money for something else, it felt good that we didn't have to ask someone for the money because that never feels good.

I'm also paying down some of my own debts and my credit score is going back up, which is a big relief too.

Well, that's all for now I guess. I hope that this helps you see what is possible and also overcome your own obstacles and fearsa whether they be different or the same as mine.

You know what you want and only you can get it so go make it happen!

Have a blessed weekend!

Marlinda :)

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Recent Comments

57

Hi Marlinda! I am glad to hear you are still moving forward and making progress. I am sorry to hear your health has been bad.

I have been in a similar situation lately. My health has been very bad all summer. It has been discouraging and depressing. I seem to have developed circulation problems on top of everything else now.

I have been so annoyed and upset that I can't get outside and enjoy the summer more since winter is so long here!

I was doing really well with my websites earlier this summer and then everything went downhill. I think the Google update August 1st was really bad. It seems to have favored large corporations over small businesses in the rankings. Now more large companies and advertisements show up high in the search results. That brought my traffic down, and like you I have had more spam also. This resulted in a slow down on my Amazon sales.

It was really discouraging since I had just decided to work really hard, take advantage of how well things were going, and I thought August would be my best month yet. I was going to be posting more and staying more active and I thought the momentum in traffic I had earlier would continue. Then the Google update happened, just as I was planning to get August off to a great start. It was really disheartening. I started wondering if I was crazy to put so much time into this if everything is just at the whim of Google and everything can change any day.

Then someone stole my newest post. They copied it exactly and ranked #1 with it! They just removed my affiliate links and put in their own! I felt like everything was just lined up against me this month. I reported it to the search engines and it has been taken down however, so it all worked out.

Yesterday I discovered I lost one of my 3 monthly premium referrals, so that is discouraging as well.

So, with all this going on, I am really glad to see you persevering and it reminds me to do the same! You are doing so well!

Jessica

Hey Jessica!

Thanksf or sharing your experience with me. I hope that you get to feeling better.

You know what they say, 'it never rains unless it pours'. It certainly seems that way for us but let's keep our chins up and keep working hard.

I didn't know about the Google update. Where do you go to find them?

Really sorry to hear about the stolen article. I think there's a way you can get the post removed but I'm not really sure. Seems like its getting more prevalent lately.

Hope you continue to persevere too :)
Marlinda

Yes, I submitted the forms and it was removed.

Just search for "Google updates" or "Google update August 2018". There was a lot of talk about it earlier in the month. My traffic just seems to be recovering in the last few days! Yay!! Others have commented they had a dip but now traffic is going back up too.

Thanks, we went kyaking today on a lake and it was lovely. I hope you are doing well too.

Here is the link to a list of all the major Google updates including the last one called the "Medic" update.
https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

Thanks a lot! Glad to hear you had fun :) Good to hear your traffic is recovering.

Congrats on your success, and thanks for the advice, and encouragement. Tom

Thanks Tom! I appreciate you support and am glad you found value in it :)

Congrats on your August profits. I like the entry you made about over researching topic. I'm at fault of this process. Thank you for sharing. Best wishes for September!

Hey Adrian!

Thanks for your support and I'm glad you found value in it. Yes,I think over researching is something that is so easy to do. One way I usually control it is to put up limitations to how much I read and where I source my information.

Hope you continue to progress through September as well :)
Marlinda

Thanks for your kind words plus the idea of setting limitations on research. Bless you!

$500+ per month is great!! Despite not being able to work on your site, you still made just as much as last month! That’s the power of this online business!

Your site will explode as soon as you feel bettter and get back on the horse. As soon as you scale this, add more posts and content, you’ll be making 4 digits real soon!

I look forward to your next success post!!

Thanks Grace! I appreciate your support and encouragement!

You're so welcome :)

Melinda. That says it all so well!
Thank you for sharing. Helped me a lot...

Hey Fleeky! Thanks for reading and I'm glad that it helped you out :)

To you
❤️

That's great news Marlinda1 well done.
Dave

Thanks Dave! :)

Pleasure

You definitely deserve it.
You've been working so hard with all your tutorials.

Over Researching doesn't cut off the track.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Thanks a lot! I appreciate your support :)

That's nice.
:)

You are making inroads with your work Marlinda.

Derek

Thanks Derek. I appreciate your support :)

Congrats Marlinda for your achievements thus far. And thanks for sharing some of your valuable tips.

Way to go :)

Thanks Jerry. I appreciate your support and hope that this info helps others too :)

I'm sure it will!

Hi Marlinda- Thanks for sharing this blog- So many people fear sharing their online business with close members of family and friends and I say. do it and be strong and if anyone puts it down it is only their fear and insecurities about success that make them react like this, NOt yours.
You are awesome and don't you ever stop knowing this. You are continuing to grow and this is amazing
Keep on believing
Vicki

Thanks Vicki! I truly appreciate your support and comment. I hope that others struggling can find strength in this post as well and know they're not alone here at WA.

Have an awesome weekend :)
Marlinda

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