The Thirty Day Challenge is officially over as of September 1, 2007, Hawaii Time, which is now. The past 31 days went by incredibly fast.

A number of people have won the challenge, most of them making their first $10 on the internet. I wish I could shake each of their hands, because truth be told, they’ve probably made more than 90% who have attempted to earn money online, ever. And they didn’t have to spend a single cent to do it.

I hate picking favourites, but Bruce on the forums has inspired me to keep going on into September. For those who don’t know, he made over $14 000 using the Thirty Day Challenge techniques on his own existing site. He also restarted part way through the challenge.

I had the goal of earning $100 online using the Thirty Day Challenge’s methods and I also had a mini goal of earning $1 a day, every day. If Ed Dale and Dan Raine could almost guarantee that a complete newbie could earn $10, I could probably do that and then some! So I upped the challenge to $100.

Oddly enough, I failed. Both goals were not met and I have yet to make that “first sale.” I made nothing, and I’m sure I’m not alone, but I did learn a few tricks (notably GTrends) that I will take with me on future projects.

What makes this even funnier is that I did make $114.06 this month, but not by using the Thirty Day Challenge techniques. This was also the largest sum of money I’ve ever earned in a single month, a personal milestone. Seeing how successful others have been and seeing that I can get the rankings and at least some of the traffic (I’ve yet to hit #1 in Google, but I’m in the top 10 for most of my niches) I will keep going on into September. What’s nice is that Ed Dale and the gang will keep the 30 Day Challenge active indefinitely, periodically adding more content and keeping the forums active due to the immense turnout they had this year.

I’m keeping the same goal, $100 by the end of September. I’m also adding a second goal of hitting $200 in my other online ventures. This will be a bit tougher since I have classes this fall, but some things are happening soon where I’ll be receiving tons of traffic in one of my projects, so I should be able to hit the $200 mark. If the traffic converts well, I may even reach my goal in the next week!

This was a great month for me online, and I hope 30 Day Challengers and other aspiring internet marketers and bloggers continue to charge into September, sword in hand!

Technorati Tags: Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, TDC, 30DC, Goals, Failure, Online Earnings, Making Money on the Internet, Internet, Serious Business, Disclaimer, New Exploits, Optimism

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Even before I started the 30 Day Challenge, I was doing some blogging and working on other internet marketing projects. On an average day, I spend only 2-3 hours on the 30 Day Challenge. There were some days when I’ve worked 5-6 hours, and some days (like yesterday) when I work only an hour. So what am I up to now?

Personal blog: Life Conquest
The aim of this blog is to document and track my progress from struggling internet marketer to online superstar. I aim to update it daily, but it just doesn’t always happen. Sorry!

News blog: Small Niche
This is that news blog I started a couple weeks back. I won’t go into details about what it’s all about, but it’s in a small niche and I promote some stories using the Web 2.0 tactics I learned in the 30 Day Challenge. I’m starting to write longer summaries as opposed to 3-4 sentence blurbs for each article. Updated daily, and it takes me less than 20 minutes to post a couple stories, and the niche is so small that some days I can only find one or two relevant stories (although I could probably find more if I looked hard enough). I’ve earned a little AdSense but not much. If I can end up making a few consistent bucks a day with this blog, I’ll start another one in another small niche.

The Two “Other” Blogs
These are the two blogs I occasionally mention in my posts, which I’ve been working on since before Life Conquest went live. One blog has been active since late last year, the other since early this year. They are in two distinct niches. Unfortunately I think the niches they’re in are a little broad. The good news? I’ve used the GTrends method to siphon a little more SE traffic using a great keyword. I update both blogs 2-3 times a week. Earnings are only through affiliate programs and I’ve made $60 this month with one of those blogs.

Two Experimental SEO Blogs
These are two blogs which I’m using to test GTrends, Web 2.0, and SEO so I can get a blog up into the top 1-3 on Google for a phrase. The idea is not to set up a blog to test the market as in the 30 Day Challenge, but to set up a blog for the long haul. They are not yet in Google’s top 10. I post in both of them 3 times a week.

30 Day Challenge Blogs
I have seven of them, but I’m actively working on four. Two of them are in Google’s top 10, whereas the other two are listed but far down. I update these blogs daily with one or two posts. I try to add a lot of photos and videos to make things interesting. I find I get a lot more stumbled traffic to my video posts. I haven’t made any sales.

I track all my blogs with StatCounter. I’m going strong on blogging because it’s ridiculously easy to set up and in many cases I can test the waters with a free hosted blog. The hardest part is writing up content! I’ve done review sites and “set and forget” blogs, and blogging has been most profitable for me so I’m sticking with it for now.

Technorati Tags: 30DC, Thirty Day Challenge, TDC, 30 Day Challenge, Blogs, Blogging, Earning Money Online, Making Money Online, Money, Internet, StatCounter, Problogger, Ka-Ching!

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I made close to $40 yesterday, bringing me to an unprecedented $102.97, and almost all of it is going to be in my hands sometime in September, plus the $60 I earned last month. I’ve earned more in the past two months than I have in the six months prior. Things are slowly starting to pick up.

If I play my cards right, I’ll also have a juicy $100 ClickBank cheque. Unfortunately, I’ve made zilch in the 30 Day Challenge thus far. Now, only a very, very few have made anything, and we’re still only a couple days into the traffic/conversion phase, but I’ve yet to receive any SE traffic, let alone make a sale. My deleted tumblelogs are still listed in the top 10 on the SERPs *smacks forehead* and all except one of my new blogs aren’t listed, period.

Perhaps I’m a little impatient, but I have to hit this goal and time is running out. I’ve already surpassed this goal with what I’ve already been doing with my other blog projects. Something tells me I should just replicate that, But I’m not even sure what I’m doing that’s suddenly putting money in my pocket. My traffic is only marginally better than it was three months ago. This blog has enjoyed a nice surge in traffic in the last month, but what I’ve earned from Life Conquest is only a mere microscopic, tiny fraction of my total earnings.

I’ve got a birthday to attend later today, so that should give me some time to clear my mind a bit and start thinking about what to do after the 30 Day Challenge, assuming it doesn’t work out the way I had hoped.

Technorati Tags: 30DC, TDC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Earnings, Online Income, Goals, Zero, 0, Zip, Zilch, Bupkis, Naught, Goose Egg, Diddly Squat, Nil, Nothing

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… from a blog which is not affiliated with the 30 Day Challenge.

This is one of the reasons why I love internet marketing: your blog or website works and earns while you’re not around, even when you sleep. The other reason is that I can work on said blog or website in nothing but my underwear and a T-shirt.

This not only increases my August earnings to over $60, but I’ve hit my minimum payout for this unnamed affiliate program and should be expecting a $120 cheque in the mail in 2-3 weeks! This is my second cheque from online wheeling and dealing and it’s over four times bigger than the last one! I really, really, really, really, really hope that I keep getting cheques (sorry, I’m Canadian) in the mail each month, and I’m not just getting lucky. The thing is, traffic hasn’t increased much in the past few months, but I’m making more money. (Note that my 30DC goal is to make $100 solely from the 30DC, so this doesn’t count towards it.)

I’m earning more money with my other blog projects that I’ve put on the back burner since starting the 30 Day Challenge. It’s too early to say I’m disappointed in the 30 Day Challenge, because we’re just starting to get into the meat and potatoes of it.

But not everybody has been pleased with the way the 30 Day Challenge. Mark at 45n5 criticized the challenge for using parasite SEO and not really working to create something sustainable. I agree with him that what we’ve done so far isn’t really sustainable, but we’ve just started, and Ed has mentioned that there are still more things to do. Mark suggests to “Do what they do, not what they say,” but I think we are building up to what they really do, which is create and sell (or get others to sell) your own info product.

I’m going to chug along with the 30 Day Challenge, and if I don’t end up making anything, I’ve only lost a little time.

Technorati Tags: TDC, 30DC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Parasite SEO, Online Earnings, Internet Income, Making Money Online, Making Money While You Sleep, Tumblr, Tumblelogs, Tumbleweed, Tumblespam,

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Just a few hours ago, I posted on my first Tumblr blog, marking the end of the strategic phase and the beginning of the tactical phase. We’ve laid the plans as per Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and now we wage war!

It is a battle against ourselves, against laziness and lameness, and tap into our potential. It is a battle against the internet, an unforgiving environment where you will find some of the most unsavory characters that have ever traversed the web. It is a battle against all odds to reach our goals before the month’s end.

I’m all open. All out on the internet now. I’m still finishing up my last two tumblelogs. I’ve submitted my completed tumblelogs to a whole slew of social bookmarking websites, not necessarily to get traffic, although that would be a bonus, but to get Google to notice my blogs and rank them quickly.

The tumblelog-building process has been enjoyable to say the least. My original plan of 2-3 posts ended up being 3-5 posts. I discovered that I could easily add video content which would complement and add much more value than just my text and odd picture. I also sprinkled affiliate links here and there. One potentially “killer” keyword phrase has about 34 000 results, but 400 daily searches according to GTrends. If I can even hit the top 10 I’m sure I could get a nice juicy slice of that traffic.

I also noticed that I’m probably going to have some friendly competition with fellow 30DC participants in a couple of my niches. I hope they can settle with being #10 as I steal 1st place on the SERPs. :p

Today is a good day, and if I get ranked and start getting some traffic, today will be quite nice.

And if I make my first sale, today will be super awesome.

Technorati Tags: 30DC, TDC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Tumblr, Affiliate Marketing, ClickBank, GTrends, Google, Genghis Khan, Sun Tzu, Art of War

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I was outside for a change, running errands and doing some birthday shopping so I got in a bit late today! This post is going to be a short update so I can get started on today’s task!

Today’s videos were not a surprise and I didn’t really learn much. But regardless, I’m following the 30 Day Challenge as closely as possible to see if I really can make $100 this month. But because I set my goal a bit high, I have six niches I’m going to promote. I’ve written four “articles” for each of my keyword phrases, and I plan to add five more by the end of the weekend. I’m not terribly satisfied with them, but from the looks of it they’re just supposed to be blog posts, so I’m not worried as much about quality (I wonder what that says about my blogs!).

Tonight I’m going to setup my Tumblr blogs with two or three posts each, with an affiliate link in 1-2 of those posts. I specifically chose my final niches to have relevant ClickBank products so if I make a few sales in all of them, I won’t be chasing minimum payment requirements.

Although Ed and the gang haven’t gone over how to get that first trickle of traffic and get listed on Google, I’m going to stumble my blog posts after I’m done and anxiously await tomorrow’s video.

Today’s Action Plan:

1. Setup a Tumblr blog for each of my keyword phrases.
2. Setup Tumblr blogs in ScribeFire.
3. Make 2 or 3 posts in each blog, or alternatively, one post immediately and one tomorrow.
4. …
5. Stumble!

Technorati Tags: Tumblr, Blogging, Blogs, 30DC, TDC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, StumbleUpon, ScribeFire, Stumble!

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I’ve picked my final six niches, but I’m going to focus most of my efforts into the best three over the next few days. This is because most of my niches have two keyword phrases pulling 40+ searches a day. At 3 mini articles per phrase (6, actually!), that adds up. But hey, when I get back later tonight and start on these mini articles I may end up speeding through them and catch up entirely.

Today’s video taught me nothing new, but I loved the teaser at the end showing Ed’s Tumblr blog as eighth on Google. I checked it a few minutes ago and it’s sixth. Not bad indeed.

I smiled when he was going through ClickBank. I’ve used it in the past and made a few sales, but never made the minimum five sales, at least one with Visa and one with MasterCard, that you need to make before ClickBank can start sending your cheques. Below is an actual screenshot, only edited to make it fit the blog post. Yes, these are my actual ClickBank earnings.

Note the “LOL.” After a few months of no sales activity, ClickBank starts removing $1.00 every pay period. Perhaps after this month I’ll have better success with ClickBank, using FREE traffic. I spent (i.e. wasted) almost $50 in PPC ads. Nowadays I never use paid advertising. After I make some more money, I’ll reinvest it in some PPC arbitrage projects.

I’m already tinkering with the idea of using the “GTrends” technique to identify keywords that I could use to get more search engine traffic to my other blogs. Currently, they receive very little SE traffic, and in the case of two of my other four blogs, they get nothing. I could do this with maybe two of my blogs which are very “niche.” Tomorrow, when I make updates for my other blogs for the next week (takes a few hours for all of them) I’ll do some keyword analysis.

Technorati Tags: 30DC, TDC, Thirty Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge, Affiliate Marketing, ClickBank, Earnings, LOL, Funny, Actual Screenshot, GTrends, Google Trends, Technorati Tags

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My goal this month is to earn $100 online (from the 30 Day Challenge), so if I want to hit that mark I’m going to have to utilize the power of the 30DC to its full potential.

After my complete failure yesterday I have a handful of fresh niches to work with. I’m still noticing a lot of “low traffic-low search results” phrases, but since listening to the latest podcast, I’m going to keep them and utilize them.

In one case I have four very similar phrases for a single niche. Individually they would bring less than 40 visitors a day, but combined - that is, if I could get to the top of the SERPs for all of them - I could get over 120 visitors. Two of the four phrases have less than 1000 search results, and the rest have less than 20000 pages to compete with. I think I could pull it off.

But I’m not aiming for one or two niches. My plan is to have six niches ready for Monday, and I want to have a nice, juicy umbrella phrase for at least one of them (>120 searches a day). The first power of the 30DC is speed. I can quickly start over and get to where I was faster in the event that I get stuck or screw up. The second power of the 30DC is that I can run several “challenges” concurrently, which I’m going to do this month. It’s not as difficult as it sounds… unless I have to create an info product for all of them!

As an example of the advantage of using multiple niches, if I make a single sale in each of those niches by the end of August, earning say $15 per sale, I’ll have $90. One more sale would get me to $100. Not too shabby if I can get a 1:200 ratio.

Technorati Tags: 30 Day Challenge, 30DC, Thirty Day Challenge, TDC, Niche Marketing

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