Here are some milestones for the month of March 2006, for the Chameleon Integration/ Blogspinner mini-network of blogs:

  1. Traffic: About 5 wks after hitting 300 pg views the first time, I hit it again on Mar 15. I came close several times before, which is a good sign. The MMA (Multiple Moving Average) graphs show a solid buildup, and a few strong efforts should push me into the 1000-pageviews orbit before the end of the year.
  2. Traffic Pt 2: Mar 20/06, first day of spring: I hit a network high of 350+ pgviews for the day. This supports my forecasting charts. In fact, I should be hitting 400 daily pageviews for the first time within 2 weeks, with regular traffic in about 1 month. However, with a bit more regular posting, there’s no reason I can’t hit 400 much sooner.
  3. Traffic Pt 3: Mar 21/06: I’ve hit 300+ PVs two days in a row, for the first time. I’m not entirely certain that this isn’t the result of some unfiltered bots, but two different web analytics/ metrics packages suggest it isn’t.
  4. Traffic Pt 4: Mar 22/06: I’ve hit 300+ a third day, starting what I hope is a streak. I’ve also noticed very high SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) ranking across Google, Yahoo, and MSN for several of my topics, and not just the obscure keywords. It’s made a difference in my traffic, but not yet in my earnings. A regular level of 400 pgviews daily is not too far away, and hitting 1,000 daily by the end of the year is even more likely now.
  5. Traffic Pt 5: I stopped keeping track of specific days, as I hit 300+ several more times. Except on weekends, 300 is my new low watermark.
  6. Revenue: February is a short month, so I made less than I did in January. However, I received my first Google cheque/ check on Mar 3rd, for the period ending Jan 31/06. It took about 5 months to get there (~US$135). The next cheque will be about 3 months, for the period of Feb-Apr, or possibly May if my traffic dips.
  7. Revenue Pt 2: The graph of my daily earnings for March shows that the local minima are rising.  (Sorry, I’m a math geek too.) That is, the lowest points during a short time period are showing that the overall daily average earnings continues to rise.
  8. Revenue Pt 3: Mar 31/05: I received my first payment from Chitika: a grand total of US$11 and change, most of it earned in Oct-Dec 2005, with a trickle afterwards. I keep them mainly because they add a bit of visual appeal to those of my blogs that are text heavy. I can’t say that I’ve optimized for Chitika, so relatively speaking, that’s not a bad return.
  9. Revenue Pt 4: As I point out rather often, I’m still on the low end of the totem pole in terms of blogging revenue. However, because I’m one of those highly analytical geeks, this puts me in the position to notice traffic and revenue patterns that aren’t as obvious when you’re pulling in the big bucks. What I’ve noticed, without fail, is that on the day or two after a day that I haven’t posted anything, my per click average earnings goes down drastically. But if post even one blog entry the next day, then the day after that, my CPC (Cost Per Click) goes back to normal levels. (CPC is a bit of a misnomer because its the advertiser cost but your earning. So it’d be better referred to EPC, Earnings Per Click.)

Keep in mind that this data is not for a single blog but for my collection of weblogs and websites. It’s not a lot of traffic or earnings for someone who’s put up to 20 hrs/day of effort in for close to 8 months, but it’s a start. With the exception of hucksters, most successful bloggers will tell you that they put in similar effort when they started.

No doubt if I put all my efforts into a single weblog/ journal, I might already be closer to the 1000 pageviews daily. However, I’m just not that kind of writer. I like writing about different things, and as I say frequently, many of blogs are actually showcases for my (mostly non-existent) consulting clients. I’m not embarrassed revealing these details because I’m demonstrating the reality of blogging.

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