Full Disclosure Friday.Volume 1, issue 2.

It’s friday again, and that means it’s time for our Full Disclosure Friday where we actually share with you loyal reader the earnings (or losses) so far to date at Photo Daily News. 

How to be a better blogger

I’ve spent a very good chunk of time this week on R&D, otherwise known as learning. If John Chow can make 40k a month telling people how much money he made then so can I. I’m only $39,999.00 away from that goal.

Anyway, I’ve done a lot of reading on SEO optimization this week, and have done a few tweaks to the site to hopefully make it more a success. I’ll confess, it’s hard to not get discouraged this early in the game. It seems like I’m pouring my heart and soul into this site and it’s a bit disenchanting sometimes to see that I’ve only had 10 visits since lunch. If there’s anybody out there with some tips or pointers, please let me know. I do think time will fix all, though if I just keep adding content. 

Actually, this week has been pretty good. The big, big news is I’m starting to get some traffic from the Big G, which is the holy grail of search engines. I was getting some traffic from MSN and Yahoo and a few others, but now that google has been and thinks I’m worthy, it’s a sign that maybe, just maybe, I’m onto something. 

According to Google webmaster tools, I am ‘number 1′  in the search engines for the following search terms

This isn’t bad for a site that’s just 3 weeks old, I think. 

I also changed my name on the wordpress system so all posts (made by me) are ‘Jim Fitzsimmons’ instead of ‘admin’. I’m a real person that makes a real effort in this site. This isn’t some site made by scripts. This site is fuelled by admittedly a lot of coffee, and my ambition. Nothing else. You’re reading what a real person wrote an thats who I’m writing for – You, the visitor. 

A quick search of Google for the term “Jim Fitzsimmons“. Call it ego, but I call it a sense of accomplishment: I’m number 15 of 657,000 possiblities for that search term. My goal is to be number 1. I’ve got some work ahead of me, as there was a Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons who became a very popular horse trainer. This means I have some work to go, to outrank Wikipedia who currently is in the number one spot. Want to help? Link to PDN. Every link I get is the best ad I can get. Truly. 

Stats

All right, the stats. 

Traffic.

Traffic is actually dying down in a way…but it’s a good thing. The traffic I had bought is falling off, or almost gone, so the traffic I have now –  though less is probably better quality. It’s not  how much traffic you have, it’s how well it converts into cash that counts. 

Yesterday saw 297 unique visitors, which is chump change to some, but for a brand new site that 3 weeks ago was an idea in my head, I’m happy, or maybe delusional. Time will tell which I guess. 

RSS subscribers also doubled this week. A week ago there was only 31 subscribers so that’s a sign.

The Money

Income from Adsense: $3.98. Nothing, I know, but it’s close to a 100% increase from last week. I’ve also added the new wordpress theme last weekend to the Unique Blog Designs ‘Money Maker’ Theme (how appropriate is that? ). I’m quite happy. Did your earnings double this week? If this keeps up, and I can double earnings every week, by the time the year end hits, I’d be at just over $1000 in adsense earnings EVERY week. I doubt the growth will happen that fast, but if I keep dreaming up good, original content and also doing some promotional and link building, I do think that this is quite a feasable number to attain. 

Affilliate programs still are at zero earnings, so that story hasn’t changed any. 

So, to summarize. 

Last week: a loss of $38.61, but add the $3.98  I made this week, and we’re down to $34.63 in the hole. 

I can dream about the Grand a week by the end of the year, but I think it’s going to take more time than that. To be completely honest, I’d like to be profitable – even if only by $1.00 by the end of the year.

Remember, you can help by telling your friends, linking to me, and so on.  Our RSS feed is free, and so is our newsletter which you can sign up for and win stuff. As I write this, you can win a Jazz JDC 9 by siging up for my free newsletter. I have more reviews coming and giveaways too. There’s still a good chance to win the digital camera.

Thanks for reading, 

Jim