Well, I've been working on the Keyword Crash Course since March 2009 and I have to admit that I'm still in love with the program. Mark and Court keep adding value to the membership and I can see that when it comes to MMO I've finally found my place. There's a sense of freedom when you finally realize that you don't need an ebook or the latest and greatest software to make things work.
I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to keep posting my earnings but during the month of July I made a total of $408.25. I can't update the total I have running on my sidebar because I'm currently participating in the Focus Challenge they have going for KCC members during the month of August. Part of the challenge is that I'm not allowed to look at any of my rankings, earnings, or traffic numbers. The whole point of the challenge is to keep us focused on the work-work-work. Writing articles, doing keyword research, and building backlinks. Everything else is a just a distraction.
My goal for the month of August is to write 100 Infobarrels. I have 18 written so far. I'm hoping that in addition to some additional Adsense income I can also use my barrel of articles for link exchanges. So, even if the Adsense doesn't work out great, it's still won't be time wasted.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Keyword Crash Course Review--Month 5
Wow--has it really been five months already? Since I last updated my earnings on this blog I've earned an additional $253.73. When I crunch the numbers, I've already earned more during these first eight days in July than the entire month of June! That's pretty exciting.
When I last posted one of my sites was sitting at #10 for its main keyword but it's been sitting at #3 for a solid 10 days now. It popped up to #1 for a whole day and I'm pretty confident that it will return and stay there before the month is over. Court says that 6 months is a pretty good indicator of where you site will end up in the long run and I'm thinkin he's right. The CPC for the site's main keyword is pretty low but I'm hoping the Google Keyword Tool is right when it estimates the search volume . . . Based on my traffic so far I think it might be overestimating things a bit but only time will tell!
Some of my other sites are also starting to get some action. I really need to start building more backlinks to some of these other sites since they seem to be converting well with only minimal traffic. So far this month I've earned $23.22 in Adsense revenue and $79.57 from Amazon. This brings my grand total of earnings up to $439.08 since signing up for the Keyword Crash Course. Have I mentioned that if you sign up to the KCC using my affiliate link you'll also receive my bonus guide?
I can tell you, the secret to my success so far can definitely be attributed to Court's magic keyword formula. I never knew how liberating it could be to figure out in a matter of seconds how much one keyword is worth as well as how easy it would be to rank for.
The cost? One dollar. I was pretty bummed when I found out that Mark and Court were opening up their KCC to new members for only a dollar. Back when the course still cost hundreds of dollars I felt, well . . . kinda special. No more! Now there are hundreds of members. But the thing is, even if you have the formula you still need to do the work. So even though you might feel like you're competing against the masses, the number of people who are actually putting the formula into action is pretty small. You can tell just by spending a few minutes in the forum. Usually, the people who aren't visiting the forum are the ones making the most money. :-)
I have to admit, I've been slacking off quite a bit since summer started. I could probably be making a significant amount more. But the thing is, even though I'm taking a little bit of a break, my earnings are still moving in the right direction.
When I last posted one of my sites was sitting at #10 for its main keyword but it's been sitting at #3 for a solid 10 days now. It popped up to #1 for a whole day and I'm pretty confident that it will return and stay there before the month is over. Court says that 6 months is a pretty good indicator of where you site will end up in the long run and I'm thinkin he's right. The CPC for the site's main keyword is pretty low but I'm hoping the Google Keyword Tool is right when it estimates the search volume . . . Based on my traffic so far I think it might be overestimating things a bit but only time will tell!
Some of my other sites are also starting to get some action. I really need to start building more backlinks to some of these other sites since they seem to be converting well with only minimal traffic. So far this month I've earned $23.22 in Adsense revenue and $79.57 from Amazon. This brings my grand total of earnings up to $439.08 since signing up for the Keyword Crash Course. Have I mentioned that if you sign up to the KCC using my affiliate link you'll also receive my bonus guide?
I can tell you, the secret to my success so far can definitely be attributed to Court's magic keyword formula. I never knew how liberating it could be to figure out in a matter of seconds how much one keyword is worth as well as how easy it would be to rank for.
The cost? One dollar. I was pretty bummed when I found out that Mark and Court were opening up their KCC to new members for only a dollar. Back when the course still cost hundreds of dollars I felt, well . . . kinda special. No more! Now there are hundreds of members. But the thing is, even if you have the formula you still need to do the work. So even though you might feel like you're competing against the masses, the number of people who are actually putting the formula into action is pretty small. You can tell just by spending a few minutes in the forum. Usually, the people who aren't visiting the forum are the ones making the most money. :-)
I have to admit, I've been slacking off quite a bit since summer started. I could probably be making a significant amount more. But the thing is, even though I'm taking a little bit of a break, my earnings are still moving in the right direction.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Keyword Crash Course Review--Month 4
I'm going to try and keep this post short because one of my sites is #10 in Scroogle for its main keyword and I've got some work to do before the Red Wings come on! But I wanted to make sure I updated with a new post before we got too far into June.
Right now I've been a member of the Keyword Crash Course for almost 4 months. As Court likes to say, things are starting to get "interesting." It's still hard for me to just work on one or two sites at a time but I think it's the best way to stay productive.
It's pretty obvious to me that my success so far is no accident. I've been working hard but the only way I've been able to stay on track is with the help and support I get from being a member of the Keyword Crash Course. I only wish this program existed two years ago when I first started trying to build a passive online income. I would be soooo way ahead of the game!
Since beginning the program I've earned $141.13 in Adsense income and $44.22 from Amazon's affiliate program. This doesn't include any income I've earned from sites I've built outside the program. But to be honest, those websites aren't earning much of anything anyway. Ironically, the one blog I built for the Niche Blogger went down from a PR1 to a PR0 during the last update. Granted, I haven't been working on that site at all for the past 3-4 months, but it just put the nail in the coffin for me as far as the Niche Blogger goes.
On the other hand, my KCC sites did well. One is a PR3, the nine others are a smattering of PR2s and PR1s. I think only one managed to stay a PR0. Not bad for a set of sites that are only 3 months old.
Right now I've been a member of the Keyword Crash Course for almost 4 months. As Court likes to say, things are starting to get "interesting." It's still hard for me to just work on one or two sites at a time but I think it's the best way to stay productive.
It's pretty obvious to me that my success so far is no accident. I've been working hard but the only way I've been able to stay on track is with the help and support I get from being a member of the Keyword Crash Course. I only wish this program existed two years ago when I first started trying to build a passive online income. I would be soooo way ahead of the game!
Since beginning the program I've earned $141.13 in Adsense income and $44.22 from Amazon's affiliate program. This doesn't include any income I've earned from sites I've built outside the program. But to be honest, those websites aren't earning much of anything anyway. Ironically, the one blog I built for the Niche Blogger went down from a PR1 to a PR0 during the last update. Granted, I haven't been working on that site at all for the past 3-4 months, but it just put the nail in the coffin for me as far as the Niche Blogger goes.
On the other hand, my KCC sites did well. One is a PR3, the nine others are a smattering of PR2s and PR1s. I think only one managed to stay a PR0. Not bad for a set of sites that are only 3 months old.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Keyword Crash Course May Mid-Month Update
I needed to take a serious break from my linkbuilding efforts and decided to write a quick post for May. I'm on approximately week 12 of promotion and although my eyes start to get fuzzy as soon as I sit down to the computer my Google Adsense account is slowly starting to gain momentum. I'm also noticing that two of the sites I've been concentrating on are slowly starting to climb back up the SERPs. One site I'm working on is #33 for its main keyword and is #3 for a related keyword that according to the Google Keyword tool gets 2,400 searches a month. Not huge but I'll take all the traffic I can get!
Another site I have high expectations for is ranking #13 for its main keyword. Since signing up for the course I've made $99.68 in Adsense. I haven't used any other methods of monetization although if/when my sites reach the top of the SERPs for their main keywords I'll certainly test them out. So far I haven't been successful getting into EPN (I tried applying a few months ago with some of my non-KCC sites) but I'm hoping to get accepted via my main Hubpages account once that gets more established. I think some of my KCC sites would work really well with Ebay. But for now I'm sticking with Adsense.
One thing I also did this month was add Infobarrel to my arsenal of tools. If you haven't heard of Infobarrel you should really check them out. Lissie gives a great explanation over at her blog and compares them to both Squidoo and Hubpages. You can read her detailed review here: What is Infobarrel? Passive Income Reviews
I also learned a few tricks from some of the forum members which I plan to implement soon. If you sign up to the KCC via my affiliate link you can get the full scoop by reading my bonus guide. Until next time--happy link building!
Another site I have high expectations for is ranking #13 for its main keyword. Since signing up for the course I've made $99.68 in Adsense. I haven't used any other methods of monetization although if/when my sites reach the top of the SERPs for their main keywords I'll certainly test them out. So far I haven't been successful getting into EPN (I tried applying a few months ago with some of my non-KCC sites) but I'm hoping to get accepted via my main Hubpages account once that gets more established. I think some of my KCC sites would work really well with Ebay. But for now I'm sticking with Adsense.
One thing I also did this month was add Infobarrel to my arsenal of tools. If you haven't heard of Infobarrel you should really check them out. Lissie gives a great explanation over at her blog and compares them to both Squidoo and Hubpages. You can read her detailed review here: What is Infobarrel? Passive Income Reviews
I also learned a few tricks from some of the forum members which I plan to implement soon. If you sign up to the KCC via my affiliate link you can get the full scoop by reading my bonus guide. Until next time--happy link building!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Earned My First $100 for Adsense
I've been so busy building backlinks for my websites that I didn't notice the other day that I made my first $100 for Adsense! A lot of marketers will tell you that your first $100 in Adsense is the hardest to earn and I hope they're right!
This is probably pretty embarrassing to share--but I hope it emphasizes how much I value the Keyword Crash Course and everything I've learned from Mark and Court so far. You should know that I signed up for my Google Adsense account in August 2007. Before starting Mark and Court's course (in February 2009) I had approximately $27 accumulated in my account from numerous BC websites I had built (BC = before Court).
I made more than that in March 2009 alone! So--in 30 days I made more than I had the past two years. Yikes! Anyway, Google doesn't send you a check for your Adsense earnings until you reach the $100 mark so that was definitely a big milestone for me. Hopefully I won't have to wait another 2 years for my second hundred dollars! :-)
This is probably pretty embarrassing to share--but I hope it emphasizes how much I value the Keyword Crash Course and everything I've learned from Mark and Court so far. You should know that I signed up for my Google Adsense account in August 2007. Before starting Mark and Court's course (in February 2009) I had approximately $27 accumulated in my account from numerous BC websites I had built (BC = before Court).
I made more than that in March 2009 alone! So--in 30 days I made more than I had the past two years. Yikes! Anyway, Google doesn't send you a check for your Adsense earnings until you reach the $100 mark so that was definitely a big milestone for me. Hopefully I won't have to wait another 2 years for my second hundred dollars! :-)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Almost Done With Month Two
Well, I'm almost done with the second month of Mark and Court's Keyword Crash Course and I'm continuing to be optimistic despite the fact that my Adsense earnings were lower this month. Really, it's no surprise that Google favoured my sites and put them higher up in the rankings when they were new. My sites are now 2-3 months old and it's going to take extra work and time to get them up in the top 5 results where they belong.
The fact that most of my sites are getting small bits of traffic and clicks for long tail keywords and phrases related to my main keyword phrases proves that the "system" is working. I can only imagine what it's like to have your website ranked #1 for its main keyword phrase. How exciting! That's what kept me going through this dreadful second month. It seems like sometimes the thought of banging your head against the wall is more pleasant than the thought of writing or re-writing more articles for backlinks.
Something interesting Mark and Court did this month was add a forum to the membership. I really like being able to follow along with other people that are going through the course but sometimes I do find the forum to be a bit distracting.
Many people like to throw in all kinds of ideas and questions that you may never of considered before. I like the idea of following along Mark and Court's plan based on blind faith a whole lot better. Trying to follow along behind a confused herd is what I did for the past 2 years and it got me nowhere.
Also, sometimes when I'm getting ready to write an article I'll think to myself, "Gee I wonder what they're talking about in the forum . . . " and I'll go check it out for a few minutes. However, after signing up for the membership I find that I'm able to manage my time so much better now that I have daily tasks assigned for each day. I don't waste nearly as much time as I used to reading through other blogs and forums.
I do wish the forum was laid out a little better though--as it can be difficult to find which threads and posts you've already read. Who knows--maybe Mark and Court did this on purpose to make sure we don't become too comfortable and spend too much time in the forum instead of working on our sites. Overall, the forum definitely has its benefits but I'm trying to stick with the core videos as much as possible.
Anyway, in a few days I'll update my Adsense earnings for the month of April. I'm looking forward to a very productive May.
The fact that most of my sites are getting small bits of traffic and clicks for long tail keywords and phrases related to my main keyword phrases proves that the "system" is working. I can only imagine what it's like to have your website ranked #1 for its main keyword phrase. How exciting! That's what kept me going through this dreadful second month. It seems like sometimes the thought of banging your head against the wall is more pleasant than the thought of writing or re-writing more articles for backlinks.
Something interesting Mark and Court did this month was add a forum to the membership. I really like being able to follow along with other people that are going through the course but sometimes I do find the forum to be a bit distracting.
Many people like to throw in all kinds of ideas and questions that you may never of considered before. I like the idea of following along Mark and Court's plan based on blind faith a whole lot better. Trying to follow along behind a confused herd is what I did for the past 2 years and it got me nowhere.
Also, sometimes when I'm getting ready to write an article I'll think to myself, "Gee I wonder what they're talking about in the forum . . . " and I'll go check it out for a few minutes. However, after signing up for the membership I find that I'm able to manage my time so much better now that I have daily tasks assigned for each day. I don't waste nearly as much time as I used to reading through other blogs and forums.
I do wish the forum was laid out a little better though--as it can be difficult to find which threads and posts you've already read. Who knows--maybe Mark and Court did this on purpose to make sure we don't become too comfortable and spend too much time in the forum instead of working on our sites. Overall, the forum definitely has its benefits but I'm trying to stick with the core videos as much as possible.
Anyway, in a few days I'll update my Adsense earnings for the month of April. I'm looking forward to a very productive May.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Keyword Crash Course April Mid-Month Update
Well, April has definitely gotten off to a rocky start. I registered all my sites the last week of February so they are almost 2 months old now. It certainly seems like I've been working on them longer than that!
So far this month I've earned $13.81 in Adsense from all my sites. I was hoping to earn at least $40 for the month of April because it would give me my first Adsense check. But I think it's gonna be kinda close. In March things really started to kick in mid-month but I think that's because my sites were still pretty new and Google was ranking them a little higher then they are now. Now that the honeymoon is over Google is no longer interested and my sites have to start earning their keep in the rankings.
It was really fun though--one day I earned over $6 in Adsense and you would've thought I won the lottery. :-) I can't even imagine what it feels like to earn $100/day. Right now my goal is to get to $25/day. If I could accomplish that by my birthday (July 2nd) it would be the best present EVER!
Another problem I encountered was possible smart pricing on one of my sites. Last month the site was getting pretty reasonable click earnings but then all of a sudden after April 1st it started getting the dreaded $0.04 and $0.02 clicks. As a precautionary measure I pulled Adsense off the site. Kind of a bummer though since this is the site that currently ranks the highest for its main keyword (#12) and is getting the most traffic from all my sites (today I got 9 unique visitors and 28 page views).
Just to see what happens I put a couple of Amazon widgets on the site instead. Maybe next month I'll consider replacing them with Adsense again. The whole smart pricing thing really freaks me out though.
Keeping up with the daily grind is starting to become difficult, especially when you don't see instant results. But I'm continuing to do something everyday, because something is better than nothing. I think now I have a feeling for which sites might have the most potential so I'm going to try and concentrate on those.
So far this month I've earned $13.81 in Adsense from all my sites. I was hoping to earn at least $40 for the month of April because it would give me my first Adsense check. But I think it's gonna be kinda close. In March things really started to kick in mid-month but I think that's because my sites were still pretty new and Google was ranking them a little higher then they are now. Now that the honeymoon is over Google is no longer interested and my sites have to start earning their keep in the rankings.
It was really fun though--one day I earned over $6 in Adsense and you would've thought I won the lottery. :-) I can't even imagine what it feels like to earn $100/day. Right now my goal is to get to $25/day. If I could accomplish that by my birthday (July 2nd) it would be the best present EVER!
Another problem I encountered was possible smart pricing on one of my sites. Last month the site was getting pretty reasonable click earnings but then all of a sudden after April 1st it started getting the dreaded $0.04 and $0.02 clicks. As a precautionary measure I pulled Adsense off the site. Kind of a bummer though since this is the site that currently ranks the highest for its main keyword (#12) and is getting the most traffic from all my sites (today I got 9 unique visitors and 28 page views).
Just to see what happens I put a couple of Amazon widgets on the site instead. Maybe next month I'll consider replacing them with Adsense again. The whole smart pricing thing really freaks me out though.
Keeping up with the daily grind is starting to become difficult, especially when you don't see instant results. But I'm continuing to do something everyday, because something is better than nothing. I think now I have a feeling for which sites might have the most potential so I'm going to try and concentrate on those.
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